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DOMK OF THE CAPITOI. AT WASHINCxTON. 



AL TEMUS' YO UNG PE OPLE ' S LIBRAR Y 



LIVES OF 

THE 1 



PRESIDENTS 



COMPILED 
FROM AUTHORITATIVE SOURCES 



With Portraits and Numerous Illustrations 



PHIIvADEIyPHIA . 3 

HENRY ALTEMUS 3^^^ 

1896 



W 



IN UNIFORM STYLE 



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the pilgrim s progress 

Alice's adventures in wonderland 

through the looking-glass & what alice found there 

robinson crusoe 

THE child's story OF THE BIBLE 

THE child's life OF CHRIST 

LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES 

THE SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON 

THE FABLES OF /ESOP 

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA 

MOTHER goose's RHYMES, JINGLES AND TALES 

exploration and adventure in the frozen seas 
the story of discovery and exploration in africa 
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ARABIAN nights' ENTERTAINMENTS 

andersen 's fairy tales 
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PREFACE 



WK have here endeavored to acquaint young peo- 
ple with the story of the lives and attain- 
ments of the men who achieved the highest 
civic honor in the gift of the people; and to explain, 
in a necessarily brief narrative, the history of our 
political parties, the issues involved in their several 
contests, and their differing administrations. 

The youth of the present is the President of the 
future; and an intelligent understanding of the 
rights and duties of citizenship is an imperative 
feature of his education. He will perceive that 
honest differences of opinion have ever prevailed, 
and that most of these have been settled by judicious 
compromises under constitutional limitations. The 
slavery question submitted itself to the arbitration of 
tlie sword, and was worsted ; and the sin and stain 
of slavery was forever removed from our country. 

We have attempted to describe the things which 
have been accomplished in order that the young pa- 
triot may have the warning and the promise in the 
things yet to be done. At the cost of much blood 
and treasure is crystalized the Nation's motto, 
E Pluribiis Unmn. Let us hope and act so that it 
will be always " now, and forever." 

C5) 



CONTENTS, 



George Washington 

John Adams . 

Thomas Jefferson 

James Madison 

James Monroe 

John Quincy Adams 

Andrew Jackson , 

Martin Van Buren 

W11.1.1AM Henry Harrison 

John Tyler 

James K. P01.K 

Zachary Taylor . 

Millard Fillmore 

Franklcn Pierce 

James Buchanan . 

Abraham Lincoln 

Andrew Johnson . 

Ulysses S. Grant . 

Rutherford B. Hayes 

James A. Garfield 

Chester A. Arthur 

Grover Cleveland 

Benjamin Harrison 

Grover Cleveland (second term) 



(7) 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS, 



INTRODUCTION. 

THE BEGINNING OF OUR REPUBLIC. 

The history of the United States may be said to 
have begun when the people rebelled against the 
"Stamp Act." Abundant"^ cause for dissatisfaction 
had previously existed. The "Navigation laws," 
which compelled the Colonies to do all their trading 
with England, were intensely disliked. We were 
not allowed to buy any European goods except in 
England; and no foreign ships were allowed to enter 
our ports. The Colonists were prevented from even 
exchanging their products with each other. Benja- 
min Franklin had been sent over to England as the 
agent of the Colonies. He got but scant hearing 
and no satisfaction from the Ministers of the Crown; 
and wrote back that he saw "nothing for the Colo- 
nies but submission." But submission was the last 
thing they dreamt of. 

When the news that the 342 chests of tea had been 
flung overboard reached London, King George III. 
was furious. He had always deplored the repeal of 
the Stamp Bill, and his fixed purpose was to seize the 
first opportunity of undoing what he styled the 

(9) 



10 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

''fatal compliance of 1766." The port of Boston 
was closed against all commerce till the tea should 
be paid for. The liberties that Massachusetts had 
enjoyed since the Pilgrim Fathers landed on her soil 
were withdrawn. The Colonists realized that if the 
port of Boston could be closed, all the ports from 
Canada to Georgia could also be closed, and the trade 
of the entire country thus ruined. The Northern and 
Southern States were drawn together by this new 
danger. 

A Congress of the Thirteen Colonies assembled in 
Philadelphia on September 5, 1774. They met to 
petition the King about their grievances. They 
limited their purposes solely to resistance to aggres- 
sion on their civil rights as British subjects. When 
they first took up arms they never contemplated 
sovereignty and independence of these States. The 
Congress were not authorized to make laws, but the 
people followed its recommendations and threw over 
the governors that had been put over them by 
England; most of whom had been tyrannical, and 
nearly all them dishonest. 

The little skirmish at Lexington on April 19, 1775, 
would never have found a place in history had it not 
been followed by the Independence of the Thirteen 
Colonies. The second skirmish for freedom occurred 
at Bunker's Hill. Though regarded by the farmer 
soldiers as a defeat, it was a most decisive victory, 
inasmuch as it inspired the Patriots with a confi- 
dence in themselves, and in the justice of their cause. 
The blood of the American Patriots had been shed 
by George III., and from that hour the domination 
of England over America passed away. 



THE BEGINNING OF OUR REPUBLIC. 



II 



I 



Says Green, in his History of England : ' ' The Con- 
gress of Delegates from the Colonial Legislatures at 
once voted measures for general defence, ordered the 
levy of an army, and set George Washington at its 




BENJAMIN FRANKWN. 

head, voting hini $500 a month for pay and expenses. 
His expenses Washington agreed to accept, but he 
would take no pav for his services. On taking the 
command he said, ' I will enter upon this moment- 



12 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

ous duty, and exert every power I possess in the 
service, and for the support of the general cause.' 
No nobler figure ever stood in the forefront of a 
nation's life. Washington was grave and courteous 
in address; his manners were simple and unpretend- 
ing; his silence and the serene calmness of his tem- 
per spoke of a perfect self-mastery; but there was 
little in his outer bearing to reveal the grandeur of 
soul which lifts his figure, with all the simple majesty 
of an ancient statue, out of the smaller passions, the 
meaner impulses of the world around him. What 
recommended him for command was simply his 
weight among his fellow-landowners of Virginia, 
and the experience of war which he had gained by 
service in border contests with the French and the 
Indians, as well as in Braddock's luckless British 
expedition against Fort Duquesne. It was only as 
the weary fight went on that the Colonists learned 
little by little the greatness of their leader, his clear 
judgment, his heroic endurance, his silence under 
difiiculties, his calmness in the hour of danger or 
defeat, the patience with which he waited, the quick- 
ness and hardness with which he struck, the lofty 
and serene sense of duty that never swerved from 
its task through resentment or jealousy, that never 
through war or peace felt the touch of a meaner am- 
bition, that knew no aim save that of guarding the 
freedom of his fellow-countrymen, and no persona] 
longing save that of returning to his own fireside 
when their freedom was secured. It was almost un- 
consciously that men learned to cling to Washington 
with a trust and faith such as few other men have 
won, and to regard him witli a reverence which still 




WASHINGTON IN 1 772, AT THE AGE OF FORTY- 



14 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

hushes us in presence of his memory. Kven America 
hardly recognized his real greatness till death set its 
seal on "the man first in war, first in peace, and 
first in the hearts of his fellow-countrymen. ' ' Wash- 
ington more than any of his fellow-colonists repre- 
sented the clinging of the Virginian landowners to 
the mother country, and his acceptance of the com- 
mand proved that even the most moderate among 
them had no hope now save in arms. But a far 
truer courage was shown in the stubborn endurance 
with which Washington's raw militiamen, who grad- 
ually dwindled from sixteen thousand to ten, ill fed, 
ill armed, and with but forty-five rounds of ammu- 
nition to each man, cooped up through the winter a 
force of ten thousand well fed and well trained vet- 
erans in the lines of Boston. The spring of 1776 
saw them force these troops to withdraw from the 
city to New York, where the whole British army, 
largely reinforced by Hessians (or hired troops) from 
Germany, was concentrated under General Howe. 
Meanwhile a raid by Arnold nearly drove the Brit- 
ish troops from Canada ; and thouo;h his attempt 
broke down before Quebec, it showed that all hope 
of reconciliation was over. The Colonies of the 
south had expelled their governors at the close of 
1775 ; at the opening of the next year Massachusetts 
instructed its delegates to support a complete repu- 
diation of the King's government by the Colonies ; 
while the American ports were thrown open to the 
world in defiance of the Navigation Acts. These 
decisive steps were followed by the great act with 
which American history begins, the adoption on 
July 4, 1776, by the delegates in Congress of a 



THE BEGINNING OF OUR REPUBLIC. 



15 



Declaration of Independence. ' ' We, ' ' ran its solemn 
words, ''the representatives of the United States of 




GEORGE III, KING OF ENGI.AND. 

America in Cono^ress assembled, appealing to the 
Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our 



1 6 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

intentions, solemnly publish and declare that these 
United Colonies are^ and of right ought to be, Free 
and Independent States." 

This Declaration was signed by 56 representatives 
from the Old 13 States, from New Hampshire to 
Georgia. It was read at the head of the army, 
proclaimed in all the States, and received by the 
people everywhere with great joy. 

George III promised, if the people would return 
to their allegiance, to forgive all of them "except 
those arch-rebels, John Hancock and Samuel 
Adams." When Hancock signed his name at the 
top of the Declaration in the bold and fearless writ- 
ing familiar to every school-boy, he remarked, 
" King George can read that without his spec- 
tacles. ' ' After the signatures had all been appended, 
Franklin said, "Gentlemen, we must now hang 
together, if we do not want to hang separately." 

Congress having unanimously elected "George 
Washington commander of all the armies raised, or 
to be raised, in defence of American liberties, " he 
set out for Cambridge, where he took command 

July 3, 1775- 

The Patriots had driven the British army into 
Boston where it remained a close prisoner. Wash- 
ington had neither the men nor arms adequate to dis- 
lodge them. He prepared to put an end to the siege, 
and either drive them into the sea or force them to 
battle. A redoubt was constructed on Dorchester 
Heights, from which, on March 4, 1776, the English 
shipping was menaced with destruction. The 
English admiral and commanding general saw the 
dano-er and sailed off to Halifax. While the fleet 



I 




The DECIrARATlON OF INDKPKNDKNCK READ TO THE ARMY. 
2 17 



i8 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



were still in view, orders were given for the Patriots 
to move, and Washington led them in triumph into 




JOHN HANCOCK, OF BOSTON, MASS. 



the liberated city. Says Bancroft: " Never was so 
great a result obtained at so small a cost of human 



THE BEGINNING OF OUR REPUBLIC. 



19 



life. The putting the British army to flight was the 
first decisive victory of the industrious middling 




SAMUEIv ADAMS, OF BOSTON, MASS. 

class over the most powerful representative of the 
mediaeval aristocracy; and the, whole number of 



20 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

New England men killed in the siege, after Wash- 
ington took the command, was less than twenty; 
the liberation of New England cost less than two 
hundred lives in battle; and the triumphant general, 
as he looked around, enjoyed the serenest delight, 
for he saw no mourners among those who greeted 
his entry after his bloodless victory." 

The earlier successes of the Colonists were soon 
followed by suffering and defeat. The English 
after being chased out of Boston went to Halifax, 
from whence they returned with a large body of 
troops, landing at Staten Island, opposite New York 
City. On August 27, 1776, was fought the Battle 
of I/Ong Island, near Brooklyn, in which the Patriots 
were defeated. Washington's army, weakened by 
withdrawals and defeat, and disheartened by the 
royalist tone of the people, was forced to evacuate 
New York and retreat step by step through New 
Jersey into Pennsylvania, followed by Howe's per- 
fectly equipped and overwhelming force at his heels. 

In the camp of our enemies was exultation; and 
gloom had spread over the almost disheartened 
Colonies, when Washington decided on crossing the 
Delaware, and giving battle to the army of British 
and Hessians stationed at Trenton, New Jersey. 

On Christmas night, with 2400 men, he marched 
to the river. The current was sullen and filled with 
craunching ice-cakes. In the blackness of night 
thev landed on the Jersey shore, and began their 
hard march of nine miles to Trenton. Said Wash- 
ington, "We will use only bayonets to-night — we 
must take the town." The Hessians were surprised 
early next morning; the victory was won. The 



22 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

battle lasted but 35 minutes, aud the whole army 
surrendered, men, arms, and colors. The rest of 
the night was consumed in recrossing the river and 
before morning the last transport had landed the 
last Patriot soldier with the spoils and the thousand 
prisoners-of-war, on the Pennsylvania side. The 
turning-point of Independence had been passed. 

Cornwallis, recalled by the news, marched at the 
head of 7000 of the best troops of the British army 
on Trenton, "to wipe out the late mortifying dis- 
grace, rescue the victors, and by a single over- 
whelming blow annihilate the rebels." Again was 
the Delaware crossed by Washington and his cru- 
saders of freedom. A rapid roundabout march of 
18 miles brought the Americans to the eastern skirts 
of Princeton. The contending parties being equal 
in number and field-pieces, the ground was fiercely 
contested. Several Patriot ofiScers were killed, and 
the retreat of the Americans had begun under the 
merciless charge of British bayonets, with which our 
men were unprovided. Washington resorted to the 
desperate but only means that ever availed with his 
raw levies aQ:ainst the unwaverinor obstinacy of 
British regulars. He led the troops to within thirty 
yards of the enemy, and made one headlong charge. 
The shattered British regiments broke and fled, 
unable to resist the terrible onset of such men. Two 
hundred lay dead or bleeding on the field, and a 
larger number were brought in as prisoners. This 
enthused the nation and inspired the young army 
with soldierly confidence. New Jersey was re- 
deemed at this Battle of Princeton; and the Colonies 
were saved. 



H 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



Burgoyiie was sent to force his way down from 
Cauada. He forced the Patriots to evacuate Ticon- 
deroga, reached the Hudson, with full control of 
Lake Champlain and Lake George. He sent his 
Hessians up into Vermont where they were defeated 
by General Stark, at Bennington. It was here 
Stark said, "We'll lick the British to-day or Betty 
Stark's a widow." 

Militia now came pouring in from New England 
and New York, and Burgoyne was hemmed in and 
forced to surrender his whole army October i6, 1777. 

The news of this calamity gave force to the words 
with which Chatham, in his place in Parliament 
at the very time of the surrender, was pressing for 
peace. " You cannot conquer America," he cried, 
when men were glorying in Howe's successes. "If 
I were an American as I am an Englishman, while 
a foreign troop was landed in my country, I never 
would lay down my arms — never, never, never!" 
Then in a burst of indignant eloquence he thun- 
dered against the use of the Indian and his scalping- 
knife as allies of England against her children. 

This victory encouraged France to acknowledge 
our Independence, December 16, 1777. 

Howe now left New York and brought his army 
round by sea, landing at the head of Chesapeake Bay, 
with a view of capturing Philadelphia. Wash- 
ington's much inferior army retired behind the 
Brandywine Creek, where a battle was fought, Sep- 
tember II, 1777, and Philadelphia was taken. Wash- 
ino^ton ao^ain attacked the British at Germantown, 
but was again repulsed. Washington now went 
into winter-quarters at Valley Forge; where the 



THE BEGINNING OF OUR REPUBLIC. 



25 



unconquerable resolve with which he nerved his 
handful of beaten and half-starved troops to face 




SIR HKNRY CI.INTON. 



Howe's army is tlie noblest of his triumphs. His 
courageous course made a deep impression on the 



26 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



French who, in 1778, made a treaty of alliance with 
us, and subsequently gave substantial assistance. 




LORD CORNWALLIS. 



Sir Henry Clinton succeeded Howe in command 
of the British army. He feared the French, who 



28 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

had come over to help us, might blockade the Del- 
aware and shut him up in Philadelphia, so he moved 
back to New York. During this retreat a battle was 
fought at Monmouth, New Jersey, which was a par- 
tial victory for Washington. 

The British now went south and took Savannah, 
Georgia, in 1778. In 1780, after a long siege, they 
took Charleston, South Carolina. Gates, who de- 
feated Burgoyne, had command of all the southern 
troops, and was defeated. In 1781 things bright- 
ened. Greene fought the battle of Cowpens, in 
South Carolina, and defeated Tarleton. He then 
retreated across North Carolina to Virginia, followed 
by Cornwallis, who was the ablest of the English 
commanders in America. 

Washington now marched southwards. The 
French fleet held the sea and blockaded the troops 
of Cornwallis at Yorktown, while Washington faced 
them in front. The American and French armies 
laid siege to the place, where Cornwallis was driven 
by famine to a surrender as humiliating as that at 
Saratoga. This surrender destroyed the last hope 
of England ever being able to subdue America. 
Exultation and gratitude broke forth from every 
heart when the news spread abroad. The cause of 
Independence was now regarded as w^on. The battles 
of the American Revolution had all been fought. 
The American Colonies were irrevocably gone. A 
preliminary treaty of peace was signed at Paris in 
1782, and in November, 1783, Britain reserved to 
herself on the American Continent only Canada and 
the island of Newfoundland, and acknowledged with- 
out reserve the Independence of the United 
States. 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. 



29 



GEORGE WASHINGTON— 1789-1797. 

George Washington, the first President, was 
born in Virginia, February 22, 1732. His ancestors 




GKORGE WASHINGTON. 



emigrated to Virginia in the time of Cromwell (1657). 
His father died when he was ten years old, leaving 



30 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



a comfortable property to his mother and five chil- 
dren. She was a wise and prudent woman, and 
trained her family to be industrious and economical. 
His education was conducted partly by his mother 
and partly at one of the ordinary schools of the 
province. It was the usual middle-class education, 
but it included enough of mathematics to enable 
Washington to act as a land-surveyor. His boyhood 
showed many evidences of that methodical precision 
which was always one of his characteristics. He 
wrote a neat, stiff hand; he compiled "Rules of 
Behavior in Company and Conversation;" he sur- 
veyed the fields and plantations about the school 
where he was staying, and entered his measurements 
and calculations in a field-book with great exactness. 
In athletic exercises he was always foremost, and it 
was a favorite diversion of his to form his school- 
mates into companies, and engage them in sham 
fights. His ambition was to enter the navy; but his 
mother objected, and he began his work of land- 
surveying. At sixteen he was employed to examine 
the valleys of the Alleghany mountains — a task 
which was continued during the next three years, 
and performed with skill and completeness. It was 
no light or easy task, for the country was a wilder- 
ness, and the severities of the weather had no miti- 
gation in those wild passes and unsheltered glens. 
It was only for a few weeks at a time that he could 
endure this life of hardship and deprivation; but 
after an interval of rest and comfort, he would again 
seek the desert, carrying his instruments of science 
into the region of savage mountains, and the neigh- 
borhood of savage men. 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. 



31 



When Washington was about nineteen, Virginia 
was divided into military districts, as a measure of 
protection against the advance of tlie French. Over 
each division an adjutant-general, with the rank of 
major, was appointed. Washington was commis- 
sioned to one of these districts, and set to work to 
study military tactics. He was so good a soldier 
two years later that, when the number of military 
divisions in Virginia was reduced to four, he was 
still left in command of one, and in this capacity 
had to train and instruct officers, to inspect men, 
arms, and accoutrements, and to establish a uniform 
system of manceuvres. When he was twenty-one, he 
was doing the work of an experienced major-general ; 
and was selected by Governor Dinwiddle for a service 
which demanded great skill as well as daring. He 
was required to make his way across a mountainous 
desert, inhabited by Indians whose friendship could 
hardly be depended on; to penetrate to the frontier 
stations of the French; and to bring back informa- 
tion concerning their position and military strength, 
together with an answer from the French com- 
mander as to why he had invaded the British domin- 
ions during a time of peace. The expedition was 
all the more onerous as winter was coming on. It 
was October 31, 1753, ere Washington started; it 
was the middle of November when, with an inter- 
preter, four attendants, and. Christopher Gist as a 
guide, he followed an Indian trail into the dim 
mysteries of the unknown forest. The path took 
the little company into the wilderness, and carried 
them over deep ravines and swollen streams, made 
worse by the sleet and snow which then began to 



32 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



fall; and at length brought them, after a hurried 
ride of nine days, to the fork of the Ohio, where 
the quick glance of Washington saw the fine capa- 
bilities for planting a great commercial city, now 
Cincinnati. 

The party swam their horses across the Alleghany, 
and slept that night on the bank of the river. Next 
morning the chief of the Delawares led them through 
an open country to the valley of Logstown, where 
they were cordially received by the Indians, with 
whom they planned a series of operations against 
the French, in the event of the latter still refusing 
to quit the country. Accompanied by several of the 
natives, Washington and his friends again set for- 
ward, and reached the French post, where the officers 
avowed their resolve to take possession of the Ohio. 
They boasted of their forts at Le Bceuf, Erie, Niag- 
ara, Toronto, and Frontenac, and said that the 
English would be unable, though two to one, to 
prevent any enterprise of the French. From this 
point, the Virginian envoys made their way, across 
creeks so swollen by the rains as to be passable only 
over felled trees, towards the fort of Le Bceuf, situ- 
ated at Waterford. Rain and snow fell; they were 
often engulfed in miry swamps, and were forced to 
kill bucks and bears for their sustenance. On 
gaining Fort Le Boeuf, they found it surrounded by 
the rough, log-built barracks of the soldiers. In 
front lay 50 birch-bark canoes, and 170 boats of pine, 
ready for the descent of the river; while, close by, 
materials were collected for building more. The 
commander of the fort was a man of great courage, 
of large experience, and of so much integrity that 



34 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

he was at once feared and beloved by the savages. 
He refused to discuss with young Washington 
the abstract question of right. He had been placed 
there by his chief, and would execute the orders he 
had received. To the letter from Didwiddie which 
Washington delivered, requiring the evacuation of 
the place, he replied by a direct refusal, and an inti- 
mation of his purpose to seize every Englishman 
within the Ohio Valley. Having executed his com- 
mission, Washington, with his companions, turned 
homeward. The return was worse than the journey 
out; for it was now the depth of winter, and having 
to cross many creeks and small rivers, they suflfered 
severely from the rigor of the season. Once, a canoe 
which they now had with them was driven against 
the rocks; at other times they were obliged to carry 
it across the half- frozen stream; often they waded 
through water which froze upon their clothes. Snow 
fell heavily, and a bitter frost set in. Washington 
and Gist separated from the others, and struck across 
the open country towards the fork of the Ohio, steer- 
ing their way by the compass. But the deadly cold 
was not the only peril they had to face. Hostile 
Indians lay in wait for the travelers, and one fired 
at Washington as he passed. The Alleghany was 
crossed on a raft laboriously made out of trees which 
they had first to fell. The passage of the river was 
made difficult and dangerous by floating ice, and 
Washington, in mancevering the raft, was thrown 
into the benumbing current. He and his compan- 
ion got to a small island, and passed the night there; 
in the morning the river was entirely frozen over, 
and they crossed on foot. On January i6, 1754, 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. 



35 



Washington again found himself at the Virginia 
capital. The journal of his expedition, which was 
published shortly afterwards, gave a very high idea 
of his sagacity, self-reliance, and powers of observa- 
tion ; and his minute description of the fort which 
he had visited — of its form, size, construction, and 
number of cannon — advanced his reputation as a 
military critic. That winter's journey had brought 
a new actor on the stage of the world. 

Dinwiddie attempted to force the French from the 
ground claimed by the English. Two companies 
were raised, and put under Washington's command 
with orders "to drive away, kill, and destroy, or seize 
as prisoners all persons, not the subjects of Great 
Britain, who should attempt to take possession of the 
lands on the Ohio River, or any of its tributaries." 
This expedition failed ; the forces being too few and 
too poor to succeed. Thus the first important opera- 
tion of a British army upon American soil ended in 
disgrace and ruin. Yet they did some good fighting, 
and Washington gained great honor for his wise 
actions and bravery. But Dinwiddie treated him so 
disrespectfully that he resigned. He was soon in- 
vited to become an aide to General Braddock, who 
was appointed by the King to take charge of all the 
forces then in the field. 

When they set out toward Fort Duquesne with 
3000 men — British regulars and Colonial troops — 
Braddock expected to find the French and Indians 
drawn up in regular lines in an open field, and he 
thought that he would only need to make a bold 
attack and they would all run. Washington told 
him that Indians fought by hiding behind trees and 



36 



■LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



lying in wait in unexpected places, and he cautioned 
the English general to send out scouts in advance of 
the troops. But Braddock would not listen ; on the 
contrary he exhibited towards him the most un- 
reasoning obstinacy and most irascible temper. He 
knew more about fighting than this young colonial 
captain could tell him — until the Indians fell upon his 
ranks just as Washington predicted, sending bullets 
thick and fast into them, while the amazed Britishers 
saw nothing but trees at which to return fire. Many 
of the officers fell ; Braddock himself was wounded, 
and Washington had to take command, and con- 
ducted the retreat in a masterly manner. He met 
the foe with their own weapons ; he scattered his 
men among the trees ; he rode here and there giving 
orders ; two horses were shot from under him, and 
four bullets passed through his coat, but he was not 
harmed. He checked the advance of the French and 
Indians, but not until nearly half of the English 
troops had been killed. 

This affair showed the British Government what 
Washington could do, and when a new force was 
raised he was put in command of 2000 men ; but 
feeling deeply repulsed by the condition of the army, 
he resigned after the capture of Fort Duquesne in 
November, 1758. 

The next year he married a rich and beautiful 
widow, Mrs. Martha Custis ; she, with her two chil- 
dren, he took to his family mansion at Mount Vernon. 
He took no part in military life now, but attended to 
his large estates. 

Thus at 27, we find Washington a country gen- 
tleman, proprietor of a plantation upon which wheat 




z:z;^.o. r...n.o .H. B.«.H .... .. -- ---• 



38 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

and tobacco were raised, and fisheries and brick- 
yards carried on. He had about 125 slaves. He 
was a good master ; and directed in his will that 
on his death his slaves should have their freedom. 
He became a member of the House of Burgesses, but 
seldom took any active part. When he spoke at all, 
it was briefly, but Patrick Henry said that he was, 
"for solid information and sound judgment, unques- 
tionably the greatest man in the Assembly." 

His eflforts at establishing our Independence have 
been referred to in the Introductory Chapter. 

When the army was about to be disbanded, a gen- 
eral in the campaigns of the Revolution, after fre- 
quent confidential conferences, addressed a letter to 
Washington, to persuade him to encourage the 
establishment of a monarchy, of which he was to be 
the head. There was no treason or treachery in 
this. Men's ideas at that time were not so demo- 
cratic as they are now; and monarchical notions and 
prejudices still prevailed. 

History was full of precedents to justify him in 
such a course; for, from Caesar to Cromwell and 
Napoleon, the leaders of nations, who had achieved 
great glory or independence, had almost invariably 
grasped at monarchical power, under the pretext of 
preserving what had been won, or of gratifying the 
feelings of their countrymen. 

But his friends had a very inadequate conception 
of the innate greatness and grandeur of Washing- 
ton's character. While he had taken no part in the 
early forming of the nation and favored a close 
union of the Colonies with the British Government, 
his experience of the injustice of the King towards 




PATRICK H:eNRY, OF VIRGINIA. 



39 



40 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

his American Colonies had forever obliterated from 
his mind any leanings towards monarchy. He was 
by conviction the sincerest Republican that ever 
lived. 

The Federal Constitution is the result of the labors 
of a convention called at Philadelphia in May, 1787, 
at a time when it was feared by many that the Union 
was in the greatest danger, from inability to pay 
soldiers who had, in 1783, been disbanded on a 
declaration of peace and an acknowledgment of in- 
dependence; from prostration of the public credit 
and faith of the nation; from the neglect to provide 
for the payment of even the interest on the public 
debt; and from the disappointed hopes of many who 
thought freedom did not need to face responsibilities. 
A large portion of the convention of 1787 still clung 
to the confederacy of the States, and advocated as a 
substitute for the constitution a revival of the old 
articles of confederation with additional powers to 
Congress. A long and very able discussion fol- 
lowed, but a constitution for the people embodying 
a division of legislative, judicial and executive 
powers prevailed, and the result is now witnessed in 
the Federal Constitution. While the Revolutionary 
War lasted but seven years, the political revolution 
incident to, identified with and directing it, lasted 
thirteen years. This was completed on April 30, 
1789, the day on which Washington was inaugurated 
as the first President under the Federal Constitution. 

The meeting of the new Government was to be on 
March 4, 1789; but so backward were some of the 
States in sending representatives that it was April 6 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. 



41 



before a quorum of both Houses could be formed. 
On the votes for President and Vice-President being 
opened and counted, it was found that Washington 




WASHINGTON'S HOUSE, MOUNT VERNON. 



had received the largest number of suffrages, and 
John zA.dams the next largest. The former, there- 
fore, stood in the position of President; the latter in 



4a 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



that of Vice-President. It was in this way, originally, 
that the two chief officers of the Union were selected; 
but they are now voted for separately. The news 
that he had been chosen to the Presidency was 
communicated to Washington on April 14. He 
departed for the seat of Government on the i6th, 
and in his diary, he records: "About ten o'clock 
I bade adieu to Mount Vernon, to private life, and 
to domestic felicity; and, with a mind oppressed 
with more anxious and painful sensations than I 
have words to express, set out for New York with 
the best disposition to render service to my country 
in obedience to its call, but with less hope of answer- 
ing its expectations." His journey to New York 
was one continued triumph. The roads were lined 
with people who came out to see him as he passed. 
As he approached the town on his route, deputations 
were sent out to receive him. The ringing of bells 
and discharge of cannon were almost incessant. 
Reaching Pennsylvania, he was met by his former 
companion-in-arms, General Mifflin, now Governor 
of the State, and a civil and military escort. His 
entry into Philadelphia was that of a conqueror. 

Continuing his journey, he arrived on the banks 
of the Delaware, close to the city of Trenton. The 
opposite shore of the river was thronged with an 
enthusiastic crowd. An arch, composed of laurels 
and hot-house flowers, spanned the bridge and on 
the crown of the arch, in letters of leaves and blos- 
soms, were the words, " December 26, 1776," while 
on the space beneath was the sentence, ''The De- 
fender of the Mothers will be the Protector of the 
Daughters." Here the matrons of the city were 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. 



43 



drawn up, and, as Washington passed under the 
arch, a number of young girls, dressed in white and 
crowned with garlands, strewed flowers before, him, 
and chanted a song of welcome. The splendor of 
his reception became even greater as he drew 
towards New York. At Elizabeth, a committee of 
Congress, with various civic officers, waited to re- 
ceive him. He embarked on a handsome barge, 
manned by thirteen pilots, masters of vessels. Other 
decorated barges followed, having on board the 
heads of departments and various public officers; and 
numerous private boats, dressed with flags, swelled 
the procession, which now swept up the Bay of New 
York. 

Washington reached New York City on April 23; 
but the inauguration did not take place until a week 
later. On the morning of April 30, religious ser- 
vices were held in all the churches. At noon, the 
city troops paraded before Washington's door, and 
soon afterwards the Committees of Congress and 
heads of departments arrived in their carriages. A 
procession was formed and, preceded by troops, 
moved forward to the Old City Hall, standing on 
the sight of the present Custom-house. Washing- 
ton rode in a state coach, and the chief officials in 
their own carriages. The foreign Ministers, and a 
long train of citizens, followed; and the windows 
along the whole line of the route were crowded with 
spectators. On nearing the Hall, Washington and 
his suite alighted from their carriages, and passed 
through two lines of troops into the Senate Cham- 
ber, where the Vice-President, the Senate, and the 
members of the House of Representatives, were 



44 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

assembled. John Adams, as the Vice-President, con- 
ducted Washington to a chair of state at the upper end 
of the room. After a solemn pause, the Vice-President 
rose, and informed the President that all things 
were prepared for him to take the oath of office. 
It was arranged that the oath should be administered 
by Robert R. Livingston, the Chancellor of the 
State of New York, in a balcony of the Senate 
Chamber, and in full view of the people assembled 
below. 

At the appointed hour, Washington came out on 
the balcony, accompanied by various public officers, 
and by members of the Senate and House of Repre- 
sentatives. The President-elect was clad in a full 
suit of dark brown cloth, of American manufacture^ 
with a steel-hilted dress sword, white silk stock- 
ings, and silver shoe-buckles ; and his hair was 
dressed and powdered in the fashion of the day, and 
worn in a bag and solitaire. Loud shouts greeted 
his appearance. He was evidently somewhat 
shaken by this testimony of public affection, and, 
advancing to the front of the balcony, laid his hand 
upon his heart, bowed several times, and then re- 
tired to an arm-chair near the table. He was now 
supported on the right by John Adams, and on the 
left by Robert R. Livingston, while in the rear 
were several of his old friends and military com- 
panions. The Bible was held up on its crimson 
cushion by the Secretary of the Senate, while the 
Chancellor read the terms of the oath, slowly and 
distinctly. These were: "I do solemnly swear 
that I will faithfully execute the office of President 
of the United States, and will, to the best of my 




THK INAUGURATION OF WASHINGTON. 4$ 



46 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitu- 
tion of the United States." While the words were 
being recited, Washington kept his hand on the 
open Bible, and on the conclusion of the oath he 
solemnly responded, " I swear — so help me God!" 
The secretary offered to raise the Bible to his lips; 
but he bowed down reverently, and kissed it. The 
Chancellor now stepped forward, and exclaimed, 
'' Long live George Washington, President of the 
United States! " A flag was run up above the 
cupola of the Hall; thirteen guns on the battery 
were discharged; the bells of the city burst into 
joyous peals; and the voices of the people again 
poured forth the grandest of all forms of homage. 

In all governments there must be parties. At the 
beginning, we had the Republicans (now the Demo- 
crats), who desired a government republican in form 
and democratic in spirit, with right of local self- 
government and State rights ever uppermost. The 
Federalists desired a government republican in form, 
with checks upon the impulses or passions of the 
people; liberty, sternly regulated by law, and that 
law strengthened and confirmed by central authority 
— the authority of the National Government to be 
final in appeals. 

Party hostilities were not manifested in the Presi- 
dential election. All bowed to the popularity of 
Washington, and he was unanimously nominated. 
He selected his cabinet from the leading minds of both 
parties, and while himself a recognized Federalist, 
all felt that he was actinof for the grood of all, and in 
the earlier years of his administration none disputed 
this fact. 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. 47 

As the new measures of the Government advanced, 
however, the anti-Federalists organized an opposition 
to the party in power. Immediate danger had 
passed. The Constitution worked well. The laws 
of Congress were respected; its calls on the States for 
revenue honored, and Washington devoted much of 
his first and second messages to showing the grow- 
ing prosperity of the country, and the respect which 
it was beginning to excite abroad. But where there 
is political power, there is opposition in a free land, 
and the great leaders of that day neither forfeited 
their reputations as patriots, or their characters as 
statesmen, by the assertion of honest differences of 
opinion. Washington, Adams, and Hamilton were 
the recognized leaders of the Federalists, the firm 
friends of the Constitution. The success of this 
instrument modified the views of the anti-Federalists, 
and Madison, of Virginia, its recognized friend when 
it was in preparation, joined with others who had 
been its friends in opposing the administration, 
and soon became recognized leaders of the anti- 
Federalists. Jefierson was then on a mission to 
France, and not until some years thereafter did he 
array himself with those opposed to centralized 
power in the nation. He returned in November, 
1789, and was called to Washington's Cabinet. 

It was a great Cabinet. Thomas Jefferson, of Vir- 
ginia, the author of the Declaration of Independence^ 
was deservedly made Secretary of State, which 
is looked upon as the chief ofiice in the gift of the 
administration. Alexander Hamilton, of New 
York, who had taken part in the battles of White 
Plains, Trenton, and Princeton, and in the second 



48 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



year of the war was made Washington's aide-de- 
camp and confidential military secretary, and who 
remained with the army till the British surrendered 
at Yorktown, where lie was at the head of his com- 
mand, was placed at the head of the Treasury. 

Henry Knox, of Mas- 
sachusetts, took a 
conspicuous part in 
the Battle of Tren- 
ton, where he was 
wounded, but was no 
less active in the suc- 
ceeding battles of 
Princeton, Brandy- 
wine and German- 
town. He was com- 
mended for his mili- 
tary skill and cool, 
determined bravery 
at Yorktown ; when 
Congress advanced 
him to the rank 
of Major-General 
and he took pos- 
session of New York 
when the British 
finally evacuated it 
in 1783. He shared intimately and constantly in all 
the Councils with Washington in the field, and quite 
naturally was appointed Secretary of War. 

Edmund Randolph, who had been Governor of 
Virginia, and a member of the Constitutional Con- 
vention, was appointed Attorney-General. He was 




ALEXANDER HAMIlvTON. 




GE;NE;RAIy H^NRY KNOX. 



49 



^O LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

advanced to the office of Secretary of State when 
Jefferson resigned in 1794. There was no Secretary 
of the Navy until John Adams' term, eight years 
later. John Jay of New York was made the first 
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. 

The first session of Congress, held in New York, 
sat for nearly six months. Nearly all the laws 
framed pointed to the organization of the Govern- 
ment, and the discussions were general and pro- 
tracted. The Federalists carried their measures by 
small majorities. 

Much of the second session was devoted to the 
discussion of the able reports of Hamilton, and their 
final adoption did much to build up the credit of the 
nation and to promote its industries. He was the 
author of the protective system. He recommended 
the funding of the war debt, the assumption of the 
State war debts by the National Government, the 
providing of a system of revenue from the collection 
of duties on imports, and an internal excise. His 
advocacy of a protective tariff was plain, for he 
declared it to be necessary for the support of the 
Government and the encotiragement of manufactta-es^ 
that duties be laid on goods, wares, and merchandise' 
imported. 

The third session of Congress was held at Phila. 
delphia, though the seat of the National Government 
had, at the previous one, been fixed on the Potomac. 
To complete Hamilton's financial system, a national 
bank was incorporated. On this project both the 
members of Congress and of the Cabinet were 
divided, but it passed, and was promptly approved 
by Washington. By this time it came to be known 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. 



51 



» 



that Jeffersou and Hamilton held opposing views on 
many questions of government, and these found 




JOHN JAY. 



their way into and influenced the action of Congress, 
and passed naturally from thence to the people, who 



r2 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

were thus early believed to be almost equally divided 
ou the more essential political issues. Before the 
close of the session, Vermont and Kentucky were 
admitted to the Union. Vermont was the first State 
admitted in addition to the original thirteen. True, 
North Carolina and Rhode Island had rejected the 
Constitution, but they reconsidered their action and 
came in, the former in November, 1789, and the 
latter in May, 1790. 

The next Congress had a majority in both branches 
favorable to the administration. It met at Philadel- 
phia in October, 179 1. The exciting measure of 
the session was the Excise Act. The people of west- 
ern Pennsylvania, largely interested in distilleries, 
prepared for armed resistance to the excise law, but 
at the same session a national militia law had been 
passed, and Washington took advantage of this to 
suppress the " Whisky (or Shaw's) Rebellion" in its 
incipiency. It was a hasty, rash undertaking, yet 
was dealt with so firmly that the action of the au- 
thorities strengthened the law and the respect for 
order. 

Congress passed an apportionment bill, which 
based the congressional representation on the census 
taken in 1790, the basis being 33,000 inhabitants for 
each representative. The second session sat from 
November, 1792, to March, 1793, ^^^^ ^^^ occupied 
in discussing the foreign and domestic relations of 
the country. 

The most serious objection to the Constitution, 
before its ratification, was the absence of a distinct 
bill of rights, which should recognize " the equalitv 
of all men, and their rights to life, liberty and the 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. 



53 



pursuit of happiness," and the first Congress framed 
a bill containing twelve articles, ten of which were 
afterwards ratified as amendments to the Constitu- 
tion. Yet State sovereignty, then imperfectly de- 
fined, was the prevailing idea in the minds of the 
Anti-Federalists, and they took every opportunity 
to oppose any extended delegation of authority from 




INDEPENDENCE HAI.T., AS IT WAS IN I776. 



the States to the Union. They contended that the 
power of the State should be supreme, and charged 
the Federalists with monarchical tendencies. They 
opposed Hamilton's national bank scheme, and Jef- 
ferson and Randolph expressed the opinion that it 
was unconstitutional — that a bank was not author- 
ized by the Constitution, and that it would prevent 



54 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



the States from maintaining banks. But when the 
bill of rights had been incorporated in and attached 
to the Constitution as amendments, Jefferson with 
rare political sagacity withdrew all opposition to the 
instrument itself, and the Anti-Federalists gladly 
followed his lead, for they felt that they had labored 
under many partisan disadvantages. The Constitu- 
tion was from the first too strong for successful 
resistance, and when opposition was confessedly 
abandoned the party name was changed, at the sug- 
gestion of Jefferson, to that of Republican. The 
Anti-Federalists were at first disposed to call their 
party the Democratic-Republicans, but finally called 
it simply Republican, to avoid the opposite of the 
extreme which they charged against the Federalists. 
Each party had its taunts in use, the Federalists 
being denounced as monarchists, the Anti- Federal- 
ists as Democrats; the one presumed to be looking 
forward to monarchy, the other to the rule of the 
mob. 

By 1793 partisan lines, under the names of Fed- 
eralists and Republicans, were plainly drawn. 
Personal ambition had much to do with it, for 
Washington had expressed his desire to retire to 
private life. While he remained at the head of 
affairs he was unwilling to part with Jefferson and 
Hamilton, and did all in his power to bring about a 
reconciliation, but without success. Before the close 
of the first Constitutional Presidency, Washington 
became convinced that the people desired him to 
accept a re-election, and he was accordingly a candi- 
date and unanimously chosen. John Adams was 
re-elected Vice-President, receiving "j^ votes to 50 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. 



55 



for George Clinton, of New York. The electors 
could not vote for Washington and Jefferson, both 
being from Virginia. 

Soon after the inauguration, Genet, an envoy 




GEORGK CTvINTON. 



from the French republic, arrived and sought to 
excite the sympathy of the United States and involve 
it in a war with Great Britain. Jefferson and his 
Republican party warmly sympathized with France, 



^6 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

and insisted that gratitude for revolutionary favors 
commanded aid to France in her struororles. The 
Federalists, under Washington and Hamilton, fa- 
vored non-intervention, and insisted that we should 
maintain friendly relations with Great Britain. 
Washington showed his usual firmness, and issued 
his celebrated proclamation of neutrality. This has 
ever since been the accepted foreign policy of the 
nation. 

The French agitation showed its impress as late 
as 1794, when a resolution to cut off intercourse with 
Great Britain passed the House, and was defeated in 
the Senate only by casting the vote of the Vice- 
President, John Adams. Jefferson left the Cabinet 
the December previous, and retired to his plantation 
in Virginia, where he spent his leisure in writing 
political essays and organizing the Republican party, 
of which he was the acknowledged founder. Here 
he escaped the errors of his party in Congress, but it 
was a fact that his friends not only did not endorse 
the non-intervention policy of Washington, but that 
they actively antagonized it in many ways. The 
congressional leader in these movements was James 
Madison; afterwards elected to the Presidency. The 
policy of Britain fed this opposition. The forts on 
Lake Erie were still occupied by the British soldiery 
in defiance of the treaty of 1783; American vessels 
were seized on their way to French ports, and 
American citizens were impressed ; England claiming 
the right during the Napoleonic wars to man her 
ships with her subjects wherever she could find them. 
To av^oid a war, Washington sent John Jay as envoy 
to England. He arrived in June, 1794, and by 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. ^j 

November succeeded in making a treaty. It was 
ratified in June, 1795, by the Senate, though there 
was much opposition, and the feeling between the 
Federal and Republican parties ran higher than 
ever. The Republicans denounced while the Fed- 
erals congratulated Washington. Under this treaty 
the British surrendered possession of all American 
ports, and as General Wayne during the previous 
summer had conquered the war-tribes and completed 
a treaty with them, the country was again on the 
road to prosperity. 

Jefferson retired from the Cabinet December 10, 
1793. He was followed by Hamilton on January 31, 
1795. His old friend General Knox quitted the 
War Office some time before. Washington felt con- 
siderably weakened by these retirements and could 
now count on but slight assistance in repelling the 
attacks of the Democratic party. John Jay was in 
England trying to adjust the old differences. 

In March, 1796, a new issue was sprung in the 
House by a resolution requesting from the President 
a copy of the instructions to John Jay, who made the 
treaty with Great Britain. 

A storm of popular fury awaited the document. 
Meetings were called in every town, and few dared 
to say a word in favor of the detested concessions. 
Jay was burned in effigy; Hamilton was stoned; and 
the British Minister at Philadelphia was insulted. 
The Democrats were especially loud in their condem- 
nation. They declared that such a treaty was an act 
of base ingratitude to France, and involved nothing 
short of treason to America herself, whose watch- 
word should at all times be hatred to monarchy and 



58 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

to England. Even the President was treated with 
little respect, and had been compelled to rebuke 
those who had sent some of the more violent ad- 
dresses. Hamilton and others defended the treaty, 
by their pens, with great power and marked effect, 
and signs of a reaction became visible after awhile. 

Randolph, the Secretary of State, whose sympathies 
were wholly with the French faction, was found plot- 
ting against the views of the Cabinet generally and 
was accused of an unauthorized using of the public 
money. His motives were probably pure, but he 
was forced out of office. This removal rendered the 
position of the Federalists a bit eaiser. It was a 
difficult matter to get a fittiug successor for Randolph. 
All the most capable and influential men refused to 
undertake so onerous a responsibility at that period 
of domestic menace and entanglement, and Washing- 
ton was obliged to be content with Pickering, whom 
he transferred from the War Office. 

In spite of all the public clamor, the House, after 
more calm and able debates, passed the needed legis- 
lation to carry out the treaty by a vote of 51 to 48, 
and the treaty with England was signed by the 
President August 18, 1795. 

It was with feelings of relief that Washington 
saw the termination of his Presidency approaching. 
His Farewell Address to the people of the United 
States was dated September 17, 1796, though his 
retirement from office was not to take place until 
March 4, in the following year. In this document, 
Washington announced the resolution he had formed 
to decline being considered among the number of 
those out of whom a new President was to be 



GEORCE WASHINGTON. 



59 



chosen. He expressed the ackiiowledgmeuts he 
owed to the country for the honors it had conferred 
upon him ; for the steadfast confidence with which 
it had supported his measures, and for the oppor- 
tunities he had thence enjoyed of manifesting his 
inviolable attachment to the institutions of the land. 
The Constitution established in 1787, he observed, 
had a just claim on the confidence and support of 
the entire nation. The basis of the political system 
was the right of the people to make and to alter 
their Constitutions. But the Constitution existing 
for the time was obligatory upon all, until changed 
by an explicit or authentic act of the whole people. 
In the most solemn manner, he exhorted the citizens 
to be on their guard against the baneful effects of 
the spirit of party generally. He remarked that the 
great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign 
countries was, in extending our commercial rela- 
tions, to have with them as little political connec- 
tion as possible. So far as they had already formed 
engagements, such were to be fulfilled with perfect 
good faith ; but there they should stop. The pri- 
mary interests of Europe had to us only a remote 
relation, if they had any at all. Our detached and 
distant situation enabled us to pursue a course very 
different from that of the Old World. It was our 
true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances 
with any foreign country, as far as existing obliga- 
tions would enable us to do so. Harmon}^ and 
liberal intercourse with all nations were recom- 
mended by policy, humanity, and interest ; but no 
exclusive favors or preferences, even in matters of 
commercial policy, should be allowed. As regarded 



6o LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

the existing war on the Continent of Europe, he 
once more insisted on the fitness of observing com- 
plete neutrality ; and with words of affectionate 
farewell the retiring President took leave of those 
public duties which, under various forms, had 
engrossed his time and attention for 45 years. 

To what extent Washington was himself the 
author of this production has been made the subject 
of discussion. It was first given to Madison and 
subsequently Hamilton and Jay assisted in its prep- 
aration ; but there can be little doubt that Wash- 
ington was in a great degree the author both of the 
sentiments and the language of that admirable piece 
of writing in which he retired from the field of 
politics. The Farewell Address of Washington was 
a priceless gift to the nation he had served so well ; 
and, although it can hardly be said that its advice 
has in all respects been observed in succeeding 
times, it has in the main directed our actions ever 
since, and has been one of the sources of our 
immense prosperity. 

Tennessee was admitted to the Union on June i, 
1796. In the Presidential battle that followed, both 
parties were confident and plainly arrayed, and so 
close was the result that the leaders of both were 
elected — John Adams the nominee of the Federalists 
to the Presidency, and Thomas Jefferson, the 
nominee of the Republicans, to the Vice- Presidency. 
The law which then obtained was that the candi- 
date who received the highest number of electoral 
votes, took the first place, and the next highest, the 
second. Thomas Pinckney, of South Carolina, was 
the Federal nominee for Vice-President, and Aaron 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. 



6l 



Burr, of New York, of the Republicans. John 
Adams, received 71 electoral votes ; Thomas Jeffer- 
son, 68 ; Thomas Pinckney, 59 ; Aaron Burr, 30 ; 
Samuel Adams, the "silver-tongued orator" of 
independence fame, 15 ; and scattering, 37. 





WASHINGTON'S SARCOPHAGUS, MOUNT VERNON. 



Upon the inauguration of John Adams, March 4, 
1797, Washington retired to his family-seat at 
Mount Vernon, where he remained till called again 
by Adams to take command of the neiv army. 



62 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



organized in May, 1798. He died December 14, 1799, 
aged 68 years and was buried at Mount Vernon. 
To all Americans, the life of George Washington 




WASHINGTON'S GRAVE, MOUNT VKRNON. 

is the noblest, the grandest, and the most influential 
in all our history, and ranks beside the most illus- 
trious characters that have ever lived. 



JOHN ADAMS. 63 



JOHN ADAMS— 1 797-1801. 

John Adams, the second President, was born in 
Massachusetts on October 30, 1736. His parents 
were of the class, then abounding in New Eng- 
land, who united the profession of agriculture, 
with some of the mechanic arts. His ancestor 
Henry had emigrated from England in 1632, 
and had established himself at Braintree with 
six sons, all of whom married : from one President 
Adams descended, and from another that Samuel 
Adams who,' with John Hancock, was by name pro- 
scribed by an Act of the British Parliament, for the 
conspicuous part he acted in the early stages of the 
opposition to the measures of the British Govern- 
ment. When 15 years of age, his father proposed to 
John either to follow the family pursuits, and to 
receive in diie time his portion of the estate, or to 
have the expense of a learned education bestowed 
upon him, with which, instead of any fortune, he 
was to make his way in future life. He chose the 
latter ; and having received some preparatory in- 
struction, was admitted at Harvard College in 1751. 
After graduating in 1755, he removed to the town 
of Worcester, where, according to the economical 
practice of that day in New England, he became a 
tutor in a grammar ^school, and at the same time 
began the study of law ; and was admitted to practice 
in 1758. In 1765 he was chosen one of the represen- 
tatives of his native town to the congress of the 
province. His first prominent appearance in political 
affairs was at a meeting to oppose the Stamp Act. 



64 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

The resolutions he proposed were carried unani- 
mously, and were adopted by more than forty other 
towns. In 1768 he removed to Boston. 

When it was determined, in 1774, to assemble a 
general Congress from the several Colonies, Adams 
was one of those selected by the people of Massa- 
chusetts. Before departing for Philadelphia to join 
the Congress, he parted with his fellow-student and 
associate at the bar, Jonathan Sewall, who had 
attained the rank of attorney-general, and was 
necessarily opposed to his political views. Sewall 
made an effort to change his determination, and to 
deter him from going to the Congress. He urged 
that Britain was determined on her system, and was 
irresistible, and would be destructive to him and all 
those who should persevere in opposition to her de- 
signs. To this Adams replied : "I know that Great 
Britain har. determined on her system, and that very 
fact determines me on mine. You know I have 
been constant and uniform in opposition to her meas- 
ures ; the die is now cast ; I have passed the Rubicon ; 
to swim or sink, live or die, survive or perish with 
my country, is my unalterable determination." 

When the Continental Congress assembled Adams 
became one of its most active and energetic leaders. 
He was a member of the committee which framed 
the Declaration of Independence; and one of the 
most powerful advocates for its adoption by the gen- 
eral body ; and by his eloquence obtained the unan- 
imous suffrages of that assembly. Jefferson said, 
"Mr. x\dams was the Colossus on that floor." 
Though he was appointed chief-justice in 1776, he 
declined the office, in order to dedicate his talents to 
the general purpose of the defence of the country. 



JOHN ADAMS. 



6S 



In 1777 he, with three other members, was ap- 
pointed a commissioner to France. He remained in 
Paris nearly two years, when, in consequence of dis- 
agreements, all but Franklin were recalled. In the 




JOHN ADAMS. 



end of 1779 he was charged with two commissions, 
— one to treat for peace, the other empowering him 
to form a commercial treaty with Great Britain. He 
went to Holland, and there, in opposition to the in- 
5 



66 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

flueiice and talents of the British Minister, he suc- 
ceeded in negotiating a loan, and in procuring the 
assistance of that country in the defence against 
Great Britain. He formed a commercial treaty with 
Holland. In 1785 he was appointed Ambassador to 
the Court of his former Sovereign, King George IH. 
He returned home in 1787, after devoting ten years 
to the public service ; received the thanks of Con- 
gress, and was elected under the Presidency of Wash- 
ington, to the office of Vice-President. In framing 
fundamental laws and State papers, he displayed 
ihe highest qualities of a jurist and a statesman, 
while in his negotiations abroad he exhibited rare 
diplomatic sagacity. He was among the strongest 
and wisest of our State Builders, and no other man 
had such claims to be the immediate successor of 
Washington. 

In the Presidential contest, the Democrats had one 
advantage over the Federalists. Their allegiance 
was given entirely to one man, while their opponents 
were divided in their regards among divers candi- 
dates. Several influential leaders in the Northern 
and Eastern States desired to return Alexander 
Hamilton; others were inclined to support John Jay; 
but to the greater number John Adams seemed the 
fittest person for filling the office. Hamilton was 
considered too much inclined towards England, and 
Jay had rendered himself unpopular by his recent 
treaty with Great Britain. The contest, therefore, 
narrowed itself into a struggle between John Adams 
and Thomas Jefferson. Adams enjoyed the confidence 
of man\- in the Northern States; even among the 
Southern, he was not entirely devoid of friends and 



JOHN ADAMS, 67 

believers; and Jefferson himself observed that he was 
the only sure barrier against Hamilton's getting in. 

As we have seen, the election was a very close 
one. The votes received by Adams were 71, which 
was one more than the requisite number. Jefferson 
stood only three votes lower, and therefore became 
Vice-President. Although Adams was thus success- 
ful, the narrowness of his majority (and that it was 
a majority at all was due to a few unexpected votes 
from the South) showed how strong a party existed 
against the opinions which he embodied. He 
called himself ''the President of three votes," and 
felt that his position was insecure, or at least ex- 
tremely difficult. Yet he determined to abate not 
one jot in vindication of his opinions. On March 
4, 1797, he took the oath of office. The ceremony 
was performed in the House of Representatives, but 
without any distinctive circumstances. In his inau- 
gural speech, Adams made it sufficiently clear that 
his alleged preference for a monarchy had no foun- 
dation in fact, and it was generally admitted that his 
statement of principles was satisfactory. Washington 
was present as a spectator. Adams adopted as his 
own the Cabinet left by Washington. George Cabot 
of Massachusetts was appointed Secretary of the 
Navy, May 3, 1798. Naval affairs had been under 
the control of the Secretary of War until the Navy 
Department was organized, April 30, 1798. 

The French Revolution now reached its highest 
point, and our people naturally took sides. Adams 
found he would have to arm to preserve neutrality 
and at the same time punish the aggression of either 
of the combatants. This was our first exhibition of 



68 THE LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

"armed neutrality." A navy was quickly raised, 
and every preparation made for defending our rights. 
An alliance with France was refused, our minister 
was dismissed; and the French navy began to cripple 
our trade. In May, 1797, President Adams felt it 
his duty to call an extra session of Congress. The 
Senate approved of negotiations for reconciliation 
with France. They were attempted, but proved 
fruitless. Our envoys were informed that in order 
to secure peace the United States must make a loan 
to the French Government, and pay secret bribes to 
members of the Directory. These demands were re- 
sisted with just disdain; and Pinckney exclaimed, 
in a sentence which has since become famous, 
"Millions for defence, but not one cent for tribute." 

In May, an army was voted. To command this 
force Washington was called from his retirement, 
and, as might have been expected of him, at once 
obeyed the call. He stipulated that Hamilton should 
be the acting Commander-in-Chief, and that the 
principal officers should be such as he approved; 
and, as on previous occasions, he declined to receive 
any part of the emoluments attached to the office, 
except as a reimbursement of sums he might himself 
lay out. A large part of his time, to the end of his 
life, was taken up with the organization of the new 
force which it was found necessary to create. 

For the office of his Inspector-General, and his 
two Major-Generals, he proposed Hamilton, Charles 
Cotesworth Pinckney, and General Henry Knox. 
This arrangement displeased Knox, who believed, 
that as an older officer than either of the other two, 
he had a claim to the post of Inspector-General. 




CHARIvES COTESWORTH PINCKNRY. 



69 



70 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



This was the choice Adams would have made; but 
he deferred to the judgment of Washington, who 
threatened to resign if his demands were not fully 
complied with — an instance of peremptoriness sin- 
gularly out of keeping with the usual tenor of his 
life. 

A Navy Department was now adopted; and ar- 
rangements made to create a naval armament. The 
effect of this outburst of national spirit was felt in 
France. The Directory disavowed the agents who 
had made proposals for bribes and subsidies. 

The President had hitherto been overmatched by 
his Cabinet. They represented opinions more ex- 
treme than his own, and they had been enabled to 
force their views on their unwilling chief. Adams 
resolved to no longer submit to this dictation. In 
an address to Cono^ress he said: " In considerinor the 
late manifestations of the policy of France towards 
foreign nations, I deem it a duty deliberately and 
solemnly to declare my opinion that, whether we 
negotiate with her or not, vigorous preparations for 
war will be alike indispensable. These alone will 
give us an equal treaty, and insure its observance." 

This address was delivered in Congress in the 
presence of Generals Washington, Hamilton, and 
Pinckney, then assembled at Philadelphia for the 
organization of the army. It recommended a large 
extension of the navy, so that the coasts might be 
watched, the national trade be protected, and the 
safe transportation of troops and stores be secured. 
The policy of the President continued to meet with 
resistance. An attempt was made by some members 
of Congress to bring on a declaration of war; but 



JOHN ADAMS. 71 

the attempt failed. At the commencement of 1799, 
the President and his Cabinet were hopelessly at 
issue, and the latter omitted no opportunity of de- 
feating or embarrassing- their chief's plans. The feel- 
ing of the country, except in a few circles, was in 
favor of war. Adams suffered from the difficulties 
which naturally belong to moderation. He was not 
loved by either of the contending parties, since he 
held aloof from the exaggerations of both. He was 
disliked by the Democrats, because he would not be 
the servant of France; he was equally disliked by 
the Ultra-Federalists, because he declined to rush 
headlong into a wild crusade against the Directory 
and its principles. Nothing, however, was more con- 
spicuous in Adams than strength of will. Although 
Congress was not heartily in his favor, and his own 
Cabinet were very much against him, he persevered 
in his views. 

The friends of Hamilton, in the early summer of 
1799, appealed to Washington to put himself forward 
once more as a candidate for the Presidential office. 
The idea was to some extent, though secretly, sup- 
ported by the members of Adams' Cabinet; it met 
with great favor in the New England States; and 
Gouverneur Morris of New York was commissioned to 
address to the Commander-in-Chief a specific request 
to this effect. Death prevented Washington's knowing 
anything of tlie design ; and it is more than likely 
that he would have refused to connect himself with 
it. He had done enough for duty, for fame, and for 
immortality, and it was not possible for him to stoop 
to the vulgar level of party intrigues. 

The relations between Adams and his Cabinet 



72 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



became every day more unsatisfactory. The latter 
were much under the influence of Hamilton, and 
that influence was unfavorable to the President. 
Adams accordingly resolved, in the early part of 
1800, on changing some of them. Those who had 
been his confidential advisers co-operated with others 
who had not stood in that relation, to decry his 
character for political sagacity, and even for political 
honesty. Their proceedings were not unknown to 
Adams, who alleged that his Federal enemies were 
inflamed against him because he had refused to lend 
himself to their schemes for an alliance with Eng- 
land, and a war against France. 

The position of the President was harassed by the 
alien and sedition laws, which were unpopular, and 
were in truth of so arbitrary a character as to furnish 
very good texts for the opposition to dilate upon. 
Adams had nothino- to do with suoorestino; either of 
these laws; they were no part of his distinctive 
policy; yet he was doubtless responsible for them, 
as he did not exercise his constitutional right of 
veto, but suffered them to pass, and afterwards used 
them whenever he found it convenient. The Alien 
Act — which authorized the President to expel from 
the country any foreigner not a citizen, who might 
be suspected of conspiring against the Republic, or 
to imprison him if he persisted in remaining — was 
vindicated on the ground that there were at that 
time more than 30,000 Frenchmen in the United 
States; that these were devoted to their native coun- 
try, and were bound together by clubs or in other 
ways ; and that there were also within the limits of 
the Federation at least 50,000 persons wlio had been 



JOHN ADAMS. 



73 



subjects of Great Britain, some of whom were per- 
sons of questionable character. The Sedition Act 
punished with fines and imprisonment those who 
might circulate " any false, scandalous, and mali- 
cious writing against the Government of the United 
States, or either House of Congress, or the President." 
If the former of these laws was justified by existing 
circumstances, it can hardly be said that the latter 
was capable of defence. It was denounced by Jeffer- 
son, as calculated to sap the very foundations of 
republicanism, and as being out of harmony with 
any political system, whether republican or mo- 
narchical, which professed to entertain a regard for 
personal liberty. Undoubtedly every State has the 
right, when necessary, to frame and enforce the most 
stringent and exceptional laws; but there does not 
seem to have been anything in our condition at this 
period to warrant so despotic a measure as the Sedi- 
tion Act, which was plainly capable of being used 
for party purposes and applied to the suppression of 
legitimate differences of opinion. At this time 200 
newspapers were published in the United States, of 
which 175 were in favor of the Federalists; the re- 
mainder, which were for the most part conducted by 
aliens, were imperilled by the objectionable statutes. 
The Legislatures of Virginia and Kentucky declared 
both the Sedition and the Alien Acts to be uncon- 
stitutional, and they were eventually repealed. It 
was a happy release to be rid of them; yet it is well 
known that they had the approval of Washington. 

The Naturalization Law was favored by the Fed- 
eralists, because they knew they could acquire few 
friends from newly arrived English or French aliens; 



74 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



among other requirements it provided that an alien 
must reside in the United States fourteen years 
before he could vote. The Republicans denounced 
this law as calculated to check immigration, and 
dangerous to our country in the fact that it caused 
too many inhabitants to owe no allegiance what- 
ever. They also asserted, as did those who opposed 
Americanism later on in our history, that America 
was properly an asylum for all nations, and that 
those coming to America should freely share all the 
privileges and liberties of the government. 

Another cause of unpopularity was found in the 
war-taxes imposed by Adams' Administration. We 
had now i6 States, and the concurrence of nine of 
these was necessary to a Presidential election. The 
official life of Adams terminated in his nominating 
at midnight on March 3, several of his party to high 
judicial functions, in accordance with a measure 
passed for reorganizing the Federal Courts. That 
Act had reduced the future number of Justices of 
the Supreme Court, and had increased the District 
Courts to twenty-three. Adams considered it neces- 
sary that these high judicial posts should be filled by 
members of the Federal body as a counterpoise to 
that reaction in favor of the Democrats which he 
foresaw would follow the election of Jefferson to the 
Presidency; but the precaution proved unavailing. 
Just then, Oliver Ellsworth resigned his position as 
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Adams offered 
the place to Jay, and, on that gentleman declining 
to serve, because of bad health, conferred it on John 
Marshall, who, not long before, had been made 
Secretary of State. The other appointments were 



JOHN ADAMS. 75 

conceived in the same spirit and with the same 
object, and Jefierson always resented them very 
strongly, as a check on the designs which he de- 
termined to carry out as soon as power had passed 
into his hands. 

In the Presidential election of 1800 John Adams 
was the nominee for President and Charles C. Pinck- 
ney for Vice-President. A "Congressional Conven- 
tion" of Republicans, held in Philadelphia, nomi- 
nated Thomas Jeflferson and Aaron Burr as candidates 
for these offices. On the election which followed, 
the Republicans chose 73 electors and the Federal- 
ists 65. Each elector voted for two persons, and 
the Republicans so voted that they unwisely gave 
Jefferson and Burr each 73 votes. Neither being 
highest, it was not legally determined which should 
be President or Vice-President, and the election had 
to go to the House of Representatives for settlement. 
The Federalists threw 65 votes to Adams and 64 to 
Pinckney. The Republicans could have done the 
same, but Burr's intrigue and ambition pre- 
vented this, and the result was a protracted contest 
in the House, and one which put the country in 
great peril, but which plainly pointed out some of 
the imperfections of the electoral features of the 
Constitution. The Federalists attempted a com- 
bination with the friends of Burr, but this specimen 
of bargaining to deprive a nominee of the place to 
which it was the plain intention of his party to elect 
him, contributed to Jefferson's popularity, if not in 
that Congress, certainly before the people. He was 
•elected on the 36th ballot. 

The bitterness of this strife, and the dangers 



^6 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

which similar ones threatened, led to an abandonment 
of the system of each elector voting for two, the 
highest to be President, the next highest Vice-Presi- 
dent, and an amendment was offered to the Consti- 
tution, requiring the electors to ballot separately for 
President and Vice-President. 

Jefferson was the first candidate nominated by a 
Congressional caucus. It convened in 1800 at 
Philadelphia, and nominated Thomas Jefferson, of 
Virginia, for President, and Aaron Burr, of New 
York, for Vice-President. Adams and Pinckney 
were not nominated, but ran and were accepted as 
national leaders of their party, just as Washington 
and Adams were before them. 

This contest broke the power of the Federal party. 
It had before relied upon the rare sagacity and 
ability of its leaders, but the contest in the House 
developed such attempts at intrigue as disgusted 
many and caused all to quarrel, Hamilton having 
early showed his dislike to Adams. As a party, the 
Federal had been peculiarly brave at times when 
high bravery was needed. It framed the Federal 
Government find stood by the powers given it until 
they were too firmly planted for even newer and 
triumphant partisans to recklessly trifle with. It 
stood for non-interference with foreign nations 
against the eloquence of adventurers, the mad im- 
pulses of mobs, the generosity of new-born freemen, 
the harangues of demagogues, and best of all against 
those who sought to fan these popular breezes to 
their own comfort. It provided for the payment of 
the debt, had the courage to raise revenues both 
from internal and external sources, and to increase 



JOHN ADAMS. 



11 



expenditures, as the growth of the country demanded. 
Though it passed out of power in a cloud of intrigue 
and in a vain grasp at the "flesh-pots," it yet had a 
glorious history, and one which none untinctured 

with the bitter pre- 
judices of that day 
can avoid admiring. 
The defeat of 
Adams was not un- 
expected by him, yet 
it was greatly regret- 
ted by his friends. 
He retired with dig^- 
nity, at 68 years of 
age, to his native 
place, formed no po- 
litical factionsagainst 
those in power, but 
publicly expressed 
his approbation of the 
measures which were 
pursued by Jefferson. 
He died in Braintree, 
Massachusetts, July 
4, 1826— the fiftieth 
AARON BURR. anulvcrsary of the 

Declaration of Inde- 
pendence — and by a singular coincidence, Jefferson, 
his political rival, but firmly attached friend, died a 
few hours earlier the same day. Adams' last words 
were, "Jefferson still survives;" he was not aware 
of his death. 
John Adams holds no second rank among the 




78 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

founders of the Republic. In depth aud breadth of 
comprehension; in heroic statesmanship; in fire and 
persuasion of eloquence; in clearness of prophetic 
gaze; in warm sympathies and defence of human 
rights; in his estimate of the dignity and sacredness 
of man; in his idolatrous worship of Human Liberty; 
in his hatred of Despotism; in his matchless execu- 
tive ability; in his broad and varied political knowl- 
edge; in the depth and clearness with which he 
stamped the seal of his mind and character upon the 
men of his time, and those who were to come after 
him — he has had no equal in our history. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON— 1801-1809. 

Thomas Jefferson, the third President, was 
born April 2, 1743, in Virginia. He was the eldest 
son in a family of eight children. At college he was 
noted for his close application to his studies. He 
was versed in Latin and Greek, and Italian, French 
and Spanish. He studied law, and was admitted to 
the bar in 1767, and his success in his chosen profes- 
sion was remarkable. In 1769 he was a member of 
the Virginia House of Burgesses. He was elected 
in 1774 a member of the Convention to choose 
delegates to the first Continental Congress at Phil- 
adelphia. In June, 1775, he took his seat in the 
Congress; and was appointed one of a committee to 
draft a declaration of independence — when he pro- 
duced that great State paper and charter of freedom, 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



79 



kuown as the Declaration of Independence^ which on 
July 4, 1776, was unanimously adopted and signed 




THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



by all of the fifty-six members present, excepting 
John Dickinson of Pennsylvania. 



8o LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

The Declaration of ludependeuce is equal to any- 
thing ever borne on parchment or expressed in the 
visible signs of thought. The heart of Jefferson in 
writing it, and of Congress in adopting it, beat for 
all humanity. In the Virginia Assembly he pro- 
cured the repeal of the laws of entail, the abolition 
of primogeniture, and the restoration of the rights 
of conscience. These reforms he believed would do 
away with every fibre of ancient or future aristocracy. 

In 1779 he succeeded Patrick Henry as Governor 
of Virginia. He declined a re-election in 1781. In 
1783 he returned to Congress, where he established 
the present Federal system of coinage, doing away 
with the English pounds, shillings, and pence. In 
1785 he succeeded Benjamin Franklin as Minister at 
Paris; and here began that attachment for the 
French nation which appeared in all his subsequent 
career. He returned to Virginia in 1789, shortly 
after Washington's election to the Presidency. He 
was immediately offered the office of Secretary of 
State, which he at once accepted. He disagreed 
with Hamilton in nearly all his financial measures, 
and to avoid the squabblings among the Cabinet he 
resigned his office December 31, 1793. At the close 
of Washington's second term he was brought for- 
ward as the Presidential candidate of the Republi- 
cans. John Adams, the Federalist nominee, was 
elected, and Jefferson receiving the next highest 
number of votes, was declared Vice-President. The 
offices were thus divided by the candidates of the 
two opposing parties. 

The inauguration of Jefferson took place March 4, 
1801. It would have been more courteous had Adams 




'/Jam, Nu/nyAii^'^ 



^^T^ 






z^ 




SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION. 



82 



THOMAS JEFFERSOX 





fe^v^/Y 






>^^?^<^5^ 



83 




Ccr. 










y^ a/r^^v'-i^-^ 



a^ u/ ^$>t<^f^ 






SIGNERS OF THK DECIyARATlON. 



remained at the Federal capitol until the installation 
of his successor; had he been present at the ceremony, 
and spoken some words of formal compliment. But 
he was a man of quick and passionate nature, and 



84 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

(lid uot care to grace the spectacle of his rival's entry 
into power. He was irritated also by the defection 
of those of his own party whose treachery had caused 
his defeat. From these causes, the retiring Presi- 
dent felt unable, or unwilling, to do towards Jefferson 
what Washington had done towards himself. He left 
the capitol just before the inauguration and from 
that time to the end of his long life ceased to have 
any vital influence on the course of American 
politics. 

With the year 1801, a change took place in the* 
policy of the Government. Jefferson, the new Presi- 
dent, had forsaken the Northern supporters of Inde- 
pendence and of the existing political condition. He 
had founded a party, the great objects of which were 
to weaken the general powers of the Union, and to 
hold authority within the narrowest limits. To that 
party he had given the energy of his genius, the 
strength of his will, and the force and mastery of his 
organizing abilities. The mistakes of Adams' Pres- 
idency — mistakes for which the subordinates were 
more responsible than the chief — had vastly im- 
proved the position of Jefferson and his friends, and 
the new President found himself at the head of a 
numerous body of supporters, with an ever-increas- 
ing accession of opinion in most parts of the country. 
In the period during which he held ofhce, he was 
able to give a new direction to American affairs, and 
to create an impulse which, with but few checks or 
reactions, continued for sixty years. 

On assuming ofhce, Jefferson was nearly 58 years 
of age. He was therefore about eight years younger 
than his rival, and represented a somewhat more 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. g^ 

modern tone of thou oh t. Startinor on his career with 
the entire confidence of the Democratic party, he was 
regarded with proportionate distrust by the Federals; 
but his inaugural speech was of a nature to allay 
their fears. None the less was Jefferson determined 
to carry but those projects of reform which he con- 
ceived to be necessary to the existence of Republican 
institutions. Since Jefferson's time, it has been 
usual for Presidents, on coming into power, to effect 
a complete cliange in the Administration, and to 
make appointments in strict conformity with party 
lines. There is this to be said for this system, it is 
obviously easier for a man to work with his own politi- 
cal followers than with those who are perhaps biassed 
in favor of different opinions. But to Jefferson it 
appeared an indispensable concomitant of democratic 
rule. James Madison of Virginia became Secretary 
of State; Henry Dearborn of Massachusetts, Secretary 
of War; and Levi Ivincoln of Massachusetts, Attorney- 
General. Madison, some years before, had been one 
of the most energetic of the Federals, but had long 
gone over to the opposite party. Before the end of the 
year, Albert Gallatin of Pennsylvania had succeeded 
Dexter in the Treasury, and Robert Smith of Mary- 
land had been made Secretary of the Navy. 

With little delay, Jefferson set to work reforming 
and retrenching. He reduced the army and navy; 
cut down the diplomatic corps; submitted to Congress 
a bill for diminishing the Judiciary; and proposed the 
remission of taxes. The internal or Excise duties, 
always unpopular, and now no longer necessary, 
were abolished; and this enabled the President to do 
away with a number of offices which had proved 



86 THE LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

burdensome to the country. The paying off of the 
national debt was an excellent work; but it could 
hardly have been effected had not Hamilton already 
placed the finances of the Republic in a healthy 
condition. 

The receptions which Washington and Adams 
used to give, and which their opponents character- 
ized as levees similar to those of Royalty, were 
abandoned ; and the practice of delivering in person 
the Presidential address to Congress at the opening 
of the session was set aside for a written Message, 
which was believed to be a more Republican mode 
of procedure; and this custom has ever since been 
followed. Jefferson was satisfied with what he had 
accomplished, and, writing to the Polish patriot, 
Kosciusko, after he had been some months in power, 
he said : — "The session of the first Congress con- 
vened since Republicanism has recovered its ascen- 
dency, is now drawing to a close. They will pretty 
completely fulfil all the desires of the people. They 
have reduced the army and navy to what is barely 
necessary. They are disarming executive patronage 
and preponderance by putting down one-half the 
offices of the United States which are no longer nec- 
essary. These economies have enabled them to 
suppress all the internal taxes, and still to make 
such provision for the payment of their public debt 
as to discharge that in eighteen years. They are 
opening the doors of hospitality to the fugitives from 
the oppression of other countries ; and we have sup- 
pressed all the public forms and ceremonies, which 
tended to familiarize the public eye to another form 
of government. The people are nearly all united ; 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 87 

their quondam leaders, infuriated with a sense of 
their impotence, will soon be seen or heard only in 
the newspapers ; and all now is tranquil, firm, and 
well, as it should be." 

In 1802, a part of the North-western Territory, 
which had been first organized in 1787, was erected 
into an independent State, with the title of Ohio. 
The population increased with extraordinary rapid- 
ity after the large cession of Indian lands in 1795, 
consequent on the successful war which had been 
carried on by General Wayne. The sense of secur- 
ity thus produced caused a rush of emigration 
towards the North-west, and in 1802 Ohio had a 
population of about 72,000. The Constitution was 
framed in November, and by this instrument it was 
provided that slavery should forever be excluded 
from the State. In 185 1 another Constitution was 
adopted, but the curse of negro bondage has never 
been admitted within the limits of this western 
Government. 

Congress, on the recommendation of Jefferson, es- 
tablished a uniform system of naturalization, and so 
modified the law as to make the required residence 
of aliens five years, instead of fourteen, and to per- 
mit a declaration of intention to become a citizen at 
the expiration of three years. By his recommenda- 
tion also was established the first sinking fund for 
the redemption of the public debt. It required the 
setting apart annually for this purpose the sum of 
$7,300,000. Other measures, more partisan in their 
character, were proposed, but Congress showed an 
aversion to undoing what had been wisely done. 
The provisional army had been disbanded, but the 



88 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

proposition to abolish the naval department was de- 
feated. 

Now was passed the first law in relation to the 
slave trade. It was to prevent the importation of 
negroes, mulattoes, and other persons of color into 
any port of the United States within a State which 
had prohibited by law the admission of any such 
person. The slave trade was not then prohibited by 
the Constitution. 

The most important occurrence under Jefferson 
was the purchase and admission of Louisiana. 
There had been fears of a war with Spain, and with 
a view to being ready. Congress passed an act author- 
izing the President to call upon the States as he 
might deem expedient, for detachments of militia 
not exceeding 80,000, or to accept the services of 
volunteers for a term of twelve months. The dis- 
agreement arose over the south-western boundary 
line and the right of navigating the Mississippi. 
Our Government learned, in the spring of 1802, that 
Spain had by a secret treaty, made in October, 1800, 
actually ceded Louisiana to France. 

While the matter was pending, an inconsiderate 
action of the Spaniards nearly brought on hostilities. 
In 1802, while they still held possession of Louisi- 
ana, the right of depositing cargoes at New Orleans, 
secured to the Americans for ten years by the Treaty 
with Spain in 1795, was suddenly withdrawn. The 
people of Kentucky and Ohio, to whom the privilege 
was necessary to their prosperity, were exasperated 
at this breach of faith, and it was proposed to take 
possession by force of the whole of Louisiana. Such 
a resolve would have been popular with the Western 



<! 




QO LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

men ; but fortunately a more conciliatory course be- 
came possible. Bonaparte foresaw that it would be 
impossible to maintain a French colony in America ; 
and he had a firm conviction that to strengthen the 
United States was to weaken England. He pro- 
posed to the American Government that it should 
purchase Louisiana, and the offer was at once ac- 
cepted. This immense and fertile region, watered 
by one of the finest rivers in the world, containing a 
city capable of being made, as it has in fact become, 
a magnificent seat of commerce, and conferring the 
command of all that part of America, was added to 
the United States for $15,000,000. The bargain was 
concluded on April 30, 1803, and the Americans 
took peaceable possession on December 20, The 
territory then contained about 85,000 mixed inhab- 
itants (of French and Spanish origin), and 40,000 
negro slaves. That part embracing the present State 
of Louisiana was called the Territory of Orleans; 
the remainder was designated the District of Louisi- 
ana, and it comprised a tract of country extending 
westward to the Pacific Ocean. The government 
of Louisiana was offered to Lafayette, and declined 
by him; but he received a grant of 12,000 acres in 
the new Territory. Napoleon was well satisfied with 
the result of the negotiations. He observed that 
"the new accession of territory would permanently 
strengthen the power of the United States, and that 
he had just given to England a maritime rival who 
would sooner or later humble her pride." Some 
were not so well pleased. It was objected that the 
Floridas and New Orleans would have been a more 
important acquisition than the whole of Louisiana; 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. gi 

to which Jefferson astutely replied that the Floridas, 
being now surrounded, must in time be absorbed in 
the Union. Not many years elapsed before his words 
proved true, and in the meanwhile the possession 
of Louisiana assured to us an immense extension 
westward. This very fact, however, was regarded 
by several as a source of danger. The Western 
States, it was argued, had already a considerable 
tendency to separate from their Eastern brethren; 
and, now that they were reinforced by this enormous 
region, would form a distinct confederation. 

Little chance was afforded the Federalists for ad- 
verse criticism in Congress, for the purchase proved 
so popular that the people greatly increased the 
majority in both branches of Congress, and Jefferson 
called it together earlier for the purpose of ratifi- 
cation. 

The Republicans closed their first national admin- 
istration with high prestige. They had met several 
congressional reverses on questions where defeat 
proved good fortune, for the Federalists kept a 
watchful defence, and were not always wrong. The 
latter suffered numerically, and many of their best 
leaders had fallen in the congressional contest of 
1800 and 1802, while the Republicans maintained 
their own additions in talent and number. 

In 1804 the candidates of both parties were nom- 
inated by congressional caucuses. Jefferson and 
George Clinton of New York were the Republican 
nominees ; Charles C. Pinckney and Rufus King of 
New York were the nominees of the Federalists, but 
they only received 14 out of 176 electoral votes. 
Burr had come too near the Presidencv to be made 



02 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



prominent with Jefferson's consent, and so was 
dropped in favor of George Clinton. 

During the development^ of these events, affairs 
progressed in a peaceable and orderly fashion. The 
President recommended an appropriation for defray- 
ing the expenses of an exploring expedition across 
the continent from the Mississippi to the Pacific, and 
its members, to the number of thirty, left the Mis- 
sissippi on May 14, 1804. They were absent over 
two years, and returned laden with information 
which gave a clearer conception than had hitherto 
existed of the vast and important region lying be- 
tween the great river and the Western Ocean. 

One tragic incident threw a lurid stain on the po- 
litical contests of 1804. A quarrel occurred between 
Alexander Hamilton and the Vice-President. The 
former had reflected upon the character of the latter 
in public, and had caused him to lose his election as 
Governor of New York. Burr demanded a retrac- 
tion, which Hamilton refused. Burr challenged 
him, and they met. Hamilton discharged his pistol 
in the air, but the fire of Burr's weapon took deadly 
effect. The wounded man expired July 13th, and 
the event produced a general sense of indignation 
throughout the Union. 

The Democratic policy of Jefferson continued to 
receive the support of a large section of the people. 
In many points that policy was characterized by a 
spirit of wise and liberal statesmanship peculiarly 
adapted to the nature of our life. In one respect 
only the President was regarded with some distrust. 
As a man standing equally aloof from all established 
religious sects, he objected to the principle of church 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. ^3 

establishments, and in Virginia had effected the 
erasure from the statute-book of all laws giving an 
exceptional position to any religious body. His 
measures in favor of religious liberty excited con- 
siderable opposition in many quarters; but they 
triumphed, because they were true expressions of- 
American genius, of the legitimate tendencies of the 
century, oV the highest liberality and the deepest 
justice. The entire freedom with which our re- 
ligious life is enabled to assume whatever forms it 
pleases, without injury or prejudice to the views of 
others, and which was so emphatically asserted by 
JejBferson in Virginia, is one of the greatest glories 
of that Confederation. Religious "establishments" 
do not exist with us, but in no country is there a 
wider range of religious sentiment, or a deeper sense 
of religious claims. The principles of Jefferson, 
however, made him numerous enemies among the 
fanatical and the timid, who did not forget his Vir- 
ginian policy of earlier years, when he had attained 
the higher dignity of President of the United States. 
Jefferson's second term of office began March 4, 1805; 
and it was not long ere he discovered that, as in the 
case of Washington, it was not to be so easy a period 
as the first. His previous administration had been 
singularly successful. He had reduced the public 
debt more than twelve millions; had lessened the 
taxes; doubled the area of the United States by his 
judicious treaties with France and with the Indians; 
had chastised the Barbary pirates, and advanced the 
reputation of the country as a naval Power. The 
reward of these services was, that he received more 



g^ LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

votes at his re-election in 1804 than at his first ap- 
pointment to the Presidency* in 1800. 

The struggle of Napoleon in Europe with the 
allied Powers now gave Jefferson an opportunity 
to inaugurate a foreign policy. England had for- 
•bidden all trade with the French and their allies, 
and France had in return forbidden all commerce 
with England and her colonies. Both of these de- 
crees violated our neutral rights, and were calculated 
to destroy our commerce, which by this time had 
become quite imposing. 

Congress acted promptly, and passed what is known 
as the Embargo Act, under the inspiration of the 
Republican party, which claimed that the only 
choice of the people lay between the embargo and 
war, and that there was no other way to obtain 
redress from England and France. But the prom- 
ised effects of the measure were not realized, and 
when dissatisfaction was manifested by the people, 
the Federalists made the question a political issue. 
Political agitation increased the discontent, and pub- 
lic opinion at one time turned so strongly against 
the law that it was openly resisted on the Eastern 
coast, and treated with almost as open contempt on 
the Canadian border. 

In January, 1809, the then closing administration 
of Jefferson had to change front on the question, and 
the law was repealed. 

During the Congress which assembled in Decem- 
ber, 1805, the Republicans dropped their name and 
accepted that of "Democrats." In all their earlier 
strifes they had been charged by their opponents 
with desiring to run to the extremes of the demo- 



96 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



cratic or '' mob rule," and fear of too general a belief 
in the truth of the charge led them to denials and 
rejection of a name for which the father of their 
party had ever shown a fondness. From now on 
the JefFersonian Republicans called themselves Dem- 
ocrats, and the word Republican passed into disuse 
until later on in the history of our political parties, 
the opponents of the Democracy accepting it as a 
name which filled the meaning of their attitude in 
the politics of the country. 

A resolution appropriating two million dollars 
for the acquisition of Florida was carried after an 
animated debate, but the House now attacked 
the policy of the Government with great vigor. 
The design of buying Florida was described as ob- 
jectionable, since it was an offer to compromise the 
national wrongs for a material advantage; and it was 
added that, in pursuit of a policy thus unwise and 
dishonorable, the Executive had throughout been 
regardless of the rights of the Legislature. The 
President had, in truth, proposed to his Cabinet to 
make the purchase without waiting for the sanction 
of Congress, but in this respect had been overruled. 
Although the Federalists were always beaten on a 
division, they contrived to delay the necessary meas- 
ures for eflfecting the proposed object until altered 
circumstances rendered it impracticable for the time; 
and it was not until fifteen years later that Florida 
passed into our possession. 

The disagreements with Spain were less important 
than those with Great Britain, consequent on the 
war with France. A subject of complaint on our 
part was the impressment of United States seamen, 



I 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. ^7 

on the plea that they were British subjects by birth, 
aud could not free themselves from their allegiance, 
even though they should have made themselves cit- 
izens of another State. Meetings were held and 
measures of retaliation were loudly demanded. On 
January 17, 1806, the President sent to the House a 
message on the subject of the disagreements with 
England. The questions involved were debated for 
several weeks, and on March 17, the House agreed 
to the policy of prohibiting specific articles of Brit- 
ish growth or manufacture, by a vote of 87 to 35. 
The bill sanctioning this prohibition, which was to 
take efiect from November 15, passed both houses 
by large majorities. National honor and safety were 
believed to be equally concerned in resistance to the 
claims of England, and all opposition to the prev- 
alent sentiment was swept away by a tide of indig- 
nant feeling. 

The minority consisted of the greater .number of 
the Federalist party, together with some few Dem- 
ocrats who followed the lead of Randolph. Although 
it was chiefly the commercial towns in the North- 
eastern States which suffered from the action of 
Great Britain, it was precisely in those places that 
the least disposition was shown for a rupture, be- 
cause it was there that the greatest injury would be 
inflicted by a state of war. 

Jefferson had cut down the small fleet which was 
commenced by his two predecessors, and the country 
now felt the evil effects of that mistaken economy. 
A number of gunboats had been built for the pur- 
pose of affording protection; but they were nothing 
more than small sailing vessels, having a cannon at 
7 



98 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS, 



the bow and another at the stern, and were manned 
only by a few armed sailors. They proved wholly 
inefficient, and our merchant ships had nothing to 
shield them from the naval power of France on the 
one hand, and of England on the other. 

Public opinion was exasperated to a pitch of fury 
by an event which gave a more than usually irri- 
tating character to the question of the right of search. 
The British ship-of-war Leopard was cruising off 
Virginia. The American frigate Chesapeake was 
not far away. She w^as hailed, and a boat despatched 
with a letter to the chief officer, informing him that 
the English Admiral had given orders to take any 
British deserters from the Chesapeake — by force, if 
necessary — and at the same time to allow, on his 
own part, a search for deserters. Permission to 
search was refused. The Leopard thereupon fired 
into the Chesapeake^ killing some of the crew; and 
the latter, being unprepared for action, immediately 
struck her flag. The English officer in command 
required the muster-roll of the ship, and took off 
four men whom he claimed as British subjects. 

Rage seized on the people when the story of the 
Chesapeake came to be known. The slight resist- 
ance offered by that vessel increased the general 
feeling of mortification and anger. Some demanded 
an immediate declaration of war against England, 
and Jefferson observed that the country had never 
been in such a state since the collision at Lexington. 

The commercial relations between America and 
the European belligerents became progressively more 
troublesome and vexatious. In January, 1807, Great 
Britain issued an order prohibiting the trade of neu- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



99 



trals from port to port of the French Empire. This 
was followed by another order forbidding neutral 
nations to trade with France and her allies, except 
on payment of tribute to Great Britain. The reply 
of Napoleon was a decree, issued from Milan, which 
declared that every neutral vessel which should sub- 
mit to be visited by a British ship, or should pay the 
tribute demanded, would be confiscated, if afterwards 
found in any port of the French Empire, or if taken 
by any of the French cruisers. By these several 
orders and decrees, almost every American vessel 
sailing on the ocean was liable to capture. Thus we 
were made to suffer because England and France 
were at war. As a measure of protection, the Pres- 
ident recommended to Congress that the seamen, 
ships, and merchandise of the United States should 
be detained in port, to preserve them from the dan- 
gers which threatened them on the ocean. A law 
laying an indefinite embargo was in consequence 
enacted, and it was hoped in this way to induce the 
belligerent Powers to return to a more conciliatory 
course, by depriving them of the benefits derived 
from their trade with the United States. The meas- 
ure was passed December 22, 1807. It lasted fourteen 
months. It was unpopular in the New England 
States, since it deprived the mercantile classes of 
their chief source of profit. The Federalists charac- 
terized the Act as unwise and oppressive; it did in 
fact lead to severe distress in many quarters; and, as 
it had proceeded from the Democratic party, it caused 
a revulsion of feeling in favor of their opponents. 

The embargo acted more to the disadvantage of 
England, as being the greatest mercantile nation in 



lOO LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

the world, than to that of France. For this very- 
reason it enjoyed the support of the Democrats, and 
aroused the ire of the Federalists and of those few 
Democrats who had joined in the political schism 
created by Randolph. The feeling against England, 
however, arising from the antagonism of previous 
years, and now intensified by the persistent assertion 
by the British of the right of search, prevailed over 
every other consideration. Jefferson, in his corre- 
spondence, admitted that the imposition of an em- 
bargo was a measure preparatory to war, and was 
intended to have the effect of recalling American 
merchant ships and their sailors from various parts 
of the globe, and giving time for the country to arm 
itself against possible eventualities. 

The distress occasioned by the embargo increased 
every day, and the Democratic party was obviously 
losing ground in consequence of the support which 
its members gave to that measure. Jefferson about 
tliis time wrote to a friend: "The Federalists are 
now playing a game of the most mischievous ten- 
dency, without, perhaps, being themselves aware of 
it. They are endeavoring to convince England that 
we suffer more from the embargo than they do, and 
that, if they will hold out awhile, we must abandon 
it; it is true that the time will come when we must 
abandon it; but if this is before the repeal of the 
Orders in Council, we must abandon it only for a state 
of war." There was a split, however, among the 
Federalists as well as among the Democrats. John 
Quincy Adams, son of the late President, had re- 
signed his seat in the Senate because he differed from 
the majority of his constituents in supporting the 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. xoi 

measures of the Administration. He wrote to the 
President, informing him that it was the determina- 
tion of the ruling party in New England not to 
submit much longer to the embargo, but to separate 
themselves from the Union if it were not speedily 
rescinded. He gave it as his opinion that, owing 
to the severe pressure of the embargo upon that 
mercantile and trading community, they would be 
supported in such a course by the great body of the 
people, and that they were already receiving the 
countenance of a secret agent of Great Britain. The 
communication with respect to the New England 
malcontents put the younger Adams on a more 
friendly footing with the Democratic party, and 
shortly afterwards, under the Presidency of Madison, 
he was appointed Minister to St. Petersburg. As 
regards the state of affairs in the North, his infor- 
mation may in some points have been incorrect; but 
the Massachusetts Legislature declared the embargo 
ruinous at home, unsatisfactory to France, and inef- 
fectual as a retaliation upon England. It recom- 
mended a repeal of the measure, as well as of that 
Act which forbade English ships to enter American 
waters, while those of France were admitted. The 
question was debated in Congress, and the several 
alternatives of submission, war with both countries, 
and war with one, were discussed with much violence, 
but without any practical issue. Congress recom- 
mended a continuance of the embargo; but passed a 
law authorizing the President to suspend the Act 
in the event of peace, or in case such changes 
should take place in the measures affecting neutral 
commerce as might render our trade sufficiently safe. 



I02 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

During the discussion of these important and dif- 
ficult matters, preparations were being made for the 
next Presidential election. Jefferson had been urged 
by the Legislatures of most of the Republican States 
to accept a third term, but he followed the patriotic 
example set by his predecessor, and declined. There 
were the two candidates of the Democratic party — 
Madison and Monroe — both natives of Virginia. 
Madison, it was known, would continue the policy of 
Jefferson, of whose administration he had through- 
out been the leading member. Monroe received the 
support of John Randolph, and of those seceders 
from the Democratic party who ranged themselves 
under Randolph's guidance. The choice rested with 
Madison, who, on the retirement of Jefferson, would 
be the obvious leader of the great body which his 
intellect and character adorned. The strength of 
the two candidates was tested in a caucus of the 
Democratic members of Congress, where a large 
majority declared for Madison. He was, therefore, 
nominated for the office of President, and George 
Clinton of New York for that of Vice-President. 
Charles C. Pinckney and Rufus King were the can- 
didates of the Federal party; and the former received 
the votes of all the New England States, except 
Vermont, the vote of Delaware, two votes in Mary- 
land, and three in North Carolina — making in all 
forty-seven votes. George Clinton received six of 
the nineteen votes of New York, and James Madison 
all the rest, amounting to 122. Madison, therefore, 
was the President for the ensuing four years, and 
Clinton retained the position of Vice-President, 
which he had held since 1805. Monroe received 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 103 

scarcely any support at all, and even for the inferior 
office received only three votes. 

Three days before Jefferson retired from office the 
Embargo Act was repealed. 

Jefferson bade farewell to Washington March 4, 
1809, ^^^^ retired to his country-seat at Monticello, 
Virginia, and expressed a great gratification at being 
able to exchange the tumult of politics for the quiet 
of retirement. 

In. 1 819 he took part in founding the University 
of Virginia, and acted as its rector till his death; 
which occurred on July 4, 1826, the fiftieth anni- 
versary of our Independence. John Adams died a 
few hours later on that very same day. There was 
a grand appropriateness in the time and manner of 
his death, which corresponded with the greatness of 
his life. He lived to an extreme age, scarcely par- 
ticipating in any of the weaknesses which generally 
attend it. His mind was clear and vigorous to the 
last; and, as if heaven desired to give some signal 
token of its approval, that day of all others which 
they would have chosen for their departure, was 
heaven's choice, for Jefferson and Adams will forever 
divide the peculiar glories of the statesmanship of 
the Revolution. The following epitaph, written by 
himself, is inscribed on his tombstone at Monticello: 
*'Here was buried Thomas Jefferson, Author of the 
Declaration of Independence, of the Statute of Vir- 
ginia for Religious Freedom, and Father of the 
University of Virginia." He was six feet two and 
one-half inches high, and possessed a well-developed 
frame. He married in 1772; his wife bringing him 
a large dowry in lands and slaves; but the large and 



104 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS, 

open hospitality with which he entertained friends 
and distinguished foreigners, left him a bankrupt at 
his death. He left one daughter. In religion he 
was a free-thinker. Slavery he considered an evil — 
morally and politically; in reference to it he said, 
''I tremble for my country when I remember that 
God is just." In 1848 his manuscripts w^ere pur- 
chased by Congress, and printed. 



JAMES MADISON— 1809-1817. 

James Madison, the fourth President, was born 
in Virginia, March 16, 1751; whither his father, an 
Englishman, had emigrated one hundred years before. 
He entered Princeton College, in New Jerse}^, in 
1769, and graduated in 1771, after which he studied 
law. He was elected a member of the Virginia 
Convention in 1776, and was a member of the Gen- 
eral Congress in 1779. From this period he was one 
of the most prominent men in the political history 
of the Republic. He was the most influential advo- 
cate of a Convention of all the States; and a delegate 
to that body in Philadelphia whose deliberations re- 
sulted in the abrogation of the old Articles of Con- 
federation and the formation of the Constitution of 
the United States. He was regarded as the chief 
framer of the Constitution, and his own arduous ser- 
vices during eight Presidential years show how well 
he could interpret, in all his executive acts, the 
Constitution in whose handiwork he had borne so 
large a share. 




1^ ■= 






STATUE OF JEFFERSON IN FRONT OF THE WHITE HOUSE- 



Io6 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

He declined the office of Secretary of State when 
Jefferson resigned in 1793 under Washington's first 
administration, and continued to serve in Congress 
till 1797. He offered the Alien and Sedition laws, 
and was the author of the Virginia Resolutions of 
1798, which protested against the attempts to in- 
crease the power of the Federal Government by 
forced constructions of general clauses in the Con- 
stitution. He boldly asserted the claims of the 
United Colonies to the Western Territory, and to 
the free navigation of the Mississippi River. He 
was appointed Secretary of State by Jefferson in 
1801, and filled that office for eight years to the sat- 
isfaction of the people. 

In his Cabinet he continued Robert Smith as Sec- 
retary of State until March 11, 1811, when he 
appointed James Monroe of Virginia to the office. 
Albert Gallatin was continued as Secretary of the 
Treasury until February 9, 1814. William Eustis 
of Massachusetts was Secretary of War during his 
first term. John Armstrong of New York, James 
Monroe, and William H. Crawford successively 
filled the office during the second term. 

Madison took office at an epoch of gloom, depres- 
sion and discontent. Two months earlier Massa- 
chusetts had painted the general situation in very 
sombre tones. "Our agriculture," they said, "is 
discouraged; the fisheries abandoned; navigation for- 
bidden; our commerce at home restrained, if not 
annihilated; our commerce abroad cut off; our navy 
sold, dismantled, or degraded to the service of cut- 
ters or gunboats; the revenue extinguished ; the course 
of justice interrupted, and the nation weakened by 



JAMES MADISON. I07 

internal animosities and divisions, at the moment 
when it is unnecessarily and improvidently exposed 




JAMES MADISON. 

to war with Great Britain, France, and Spain." 
Though exaggerated by the warmth of party feeling, 
this statement was nearly true in the main. By the 



Io8 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

people of the North-eastern States it was greatly 
doubted whether matters would experience any im- 
provement under Madison's administration, but his 
inaugural address had so suave and conciliatory a 
character, that most of his opponents were reassured 
and inclined to at least give him a trial. He was a 
man of very large political experience; his character 
was honorable and amiable; and having at different 
periods of his life been connected with both political 
parties, it was naturally supposed that he understood 
their conflicting views, and would be desirous of 
reconciling extreme opinions by the adoption of some 
middle course. Madison, however, resolved to fol- 
low the policy of Jefferson. He desired to avoid 
war with England, and sought by skilful diplomacy 
to avert the dangers presented by both France and 
England in their attitude with neutrals. In May, 
1810, when the Non-intercourse Act had expired, 
Madison caused proposals to be made to both bel- 
ligerents, that if either would revoke its hostile 
edict, the Non-intercourse Act should be revived and 
enforced against the other nation. This Act had 
been passed by Congress as a substitute for the Em- 
bargo. France quickly accepted Madison's proposal, 
and received the benefits of the Act, and the direct 
result was to increase the growing hostility of Eng- 
land. From this time forward the negotiations had 
more the character of a diplomatic contest than an 
attempt to maintain peace. Both countries were 
upon their mettle, and early in 1811, Pinckney, the 
American minister to Great Britain, was recalled, 
and a year later a formal declaration of war was 
made by the United States. 



JAMES MADISON. 



109 



Just prior to this, the old issue, made by the Re- 
publicaus against Hamilton's scheme for a National 
Bank, was revived by the fact that the charter of the 
bank ceased March 4, 181 1, and an attempt was 
made to recharter it. A bill for this purpose was in- 
troduced into Congress, but postponed in the House 
by a vote of 65 to 64, 
while in the Senate 
it was rejected by 
the casting vote of 
the Vice-President, 
Clinton — this not- 
withstanding its 
provisions had been 
framed or approved 
by Gallatin, the 
Secretary of the 
Treasury. There- 
upon the bank 
wound up its busi- 
ness and ceased to 
act. The Federal- 
ists were all strong 
advocates of the 
bank, and it was so 
strong that it di- 
vided some of the 

Democrats who enjoyed a loose rein in the contest 
so far as the administration was concerned, the Presi- 
dent not caring for political quarrels at a time when 
war was threatened with a powerful foreign nation. 
The views of the Federalists on this question de- 
scended to the Whigs some years later, and this fact 




HENRY CIvAY. 



no LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

led to the charges that the Whigs were but Federal- 
ists in disguise. 

The next Congress continued the large Demo- 
cratic majority, which promptly carried every admin- 
istration measure, as did the following, which met 
November 4, 181 1, Henry Clay of Kentucky, then 
an ardent supporter of the policy of Madisou, suc- 
ceeding to the House speakersliip. He had pre- 
viously served two short sessions in the Senate, and 
had acquired a high reputation as an able debater. 
He preferred the House at that period of life, be- 
lieving his powers better calculated to win fame in 
the more popular representative hall. John C. Cal- 
houn of South Carolina was also in the House at 
this time, and noted for the boldness of his views 
and their assertion. 

The economical policy of Jefferson was now aban- 
doned, and preparations were begun for hostilities 
against the Federalists, and the timid, or peace-loving 
Republicans. Bills were passed to enlist men, or- 
ganize the militia, and to equip and enlarge the 
navy. 

On the quiet understanding that Madison would 
adopt a war policy, he was renominated for a second 
term. John Langdon was nominated for Vice-Pres- 
ident, but as he declined on account of age, Elbridge 
Gerry of Massachusetts took his place. A conve^ttion 
of the opposition, representing eleven States, was 
held in New York city, which nominated De Witt 
Clinton, with Jared IngersoU of Pennsylvania for 
Vice-President. This was the first National Con- 
vention, partisan in character, and the Federalists 
have the credit of originating and carrying out the 



JAMES MADISON. 



Ill 



idea, 
ison. 



The election resulted in the success of Mad- 
who received 128 electoral votes to 89 for 




DK WITT ClylNTON. 



Clinton. De Witt Clinton was a nephew of George 
Clinton, Governor of New York State, and fourth 
Vice-President of the United States. He was a Re- 



XI2 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

publican in politics, and became the most iufluential 
leader of his party in his native State. In 1801 he 
was a United States Senator. He subsequently be- 
came Mayor of New York city, which office he held 
for eleven years, rendering important services to the 
city. In 1812 he differed with Madison respecting 
the war, and became his competitor for the Presi- 
dency. He was elected Governor of New York in 
181 7. He proposed the building of a canal through 
New York State, and the Legislature passed a bill 
authorizing its construction. His political oppo- 
nents denounced the canal as visionary and imprac- 
ticable. He declined the nomination for Governor 
in 1822; but in 1824 ^^ ^^as again elected Governor 
by a large majority. The canal was completed in 
1825, and brought a great access of trade and pros- 
perity to the city of New York and other portions 
of the State. He was re-elected Governor in 1826, 
and died before the expiration of his term. 

Though factious strife had been somewhat rife, 
less attention was paid to politics than to the ap- 
proaching war. There were new Democratic leaders 
in the lower House, and none were more prominent 
than Clay of Kentucky, and Calhoun, Cheves, and 
Lowndes, all of South Carolina. The policy of 
Jefferson in reducing the army and navy was now 
greatly deplored, and the defenceless condition in 
which it left the country was the stated cause of the 
feuds which followed. Madison changed this policy 
at the earnest solicitation of Clay, Calhoun, and 
Lowndes, who w^ere the recognized leaders of the 
war party. He had held back, hoping that diplo- 
macy might avert a contest; but when once con- 



JAMES MADISON. 



113 



vinced that war was inevitable and even desirable 
under the circumstances, his official utterances were 
bold and free. He declared in a message that pur 




'THE ERIK CANAIv, AT MOHAWK, NEW YORK. 



flag was continually insulted on the high seas; that 
the right of searching American vessels for British 
seamen was still in practice, and that thousands of 



114 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

American citizens had iu this way been impressed 
into service on foreign ships; that peaceful efforts at 
adjustment of the difficulties had proved abortive, 
and that the British ministry and British emissaries 
had actually been intriguing for the dismemberment 
of the Union. 

The Act declaring war was approved by the Pres- 
ident on June i8, 1812, and is remarkably short and 
comprehensive. It was drawn by William Pinckney, 
and is in the words following: 

"^^ // enacted^ etc. That war be, and the same is 
hereby declared to exist between the United King- 
dom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the dependen- 
cies thereof, and the United States of America, and 
their Territories; and that the President of the United 
States is hereby authorized to use the whole land 
and naval force of the United States to carry the 
same into effect, and to issue to private armed vessels 
of the United States commissions, or letters of 
marque and general reprisal, in such form as he shall 
think proper, and under the seal of the United States, 
against the vessels, goods, and effects of the Govern- 
ment of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and 
Ireland, and the subjects thereof." 

This was a soul-stirring message, but it did not 
rally all the people as it should have done. Political 
jealousies were very great, and the frequent defeats 
of the Federalists, while they tended to greatly re- 
duce their numbers and weaken their power, seemed 
to strengthen their animosity, and they could see 
nothing good in any act of the administration. 

Four Federalist representatives in Congress went 
so far as to issue an address opposing the war, the 



JAMES MADISON. 1 15 

way in which it had been declared, and denouncing 
it as unjust. Some of the New England States re- 
fused to support it with their militia, and Massachu- 
setts sent peace memorials to Congress. 

A peace party was formed with a view to array 
the religious sentiment of the country against the 
war, and societies with similar objects were organized 
by the more radical of the Federalists. 

This opposition culminated in the assembling of 
a convention at Hartford, at which delegates were 
present from all of the New England States. They 
sat for three weeks with closed doors, and issued an 
address. It was charged by the Democrats that the 
real object of the convention was to negotiate a sep- 
arate treaty of peace, on behalf of New England, 
with Great Britain, but this charge was as warmly 
denied. The exact truth has never been discovered, 
the fears of the participants of threatened trials for 
treason closing their mouths, if their professions 
were false. The treaty of Ghent, which was con- 
cluded on December 14, 1814, prevented other action 
by the Hartford Convention. 

When we plunged into the 181 2 War with Great 
Britain, our navy consisted of but twelve vessels and 
our army was an undisciplined body, officered by 
Revolutionary soldiers, too old to be efficient. On 
the sea we whipped her all around. Out of the 17 
fights which occurred during the two years the war 
lasted, we won thirteen. " Don't give up the ship! '^ 
was the battle-cry of the American sailor. 

On the land we did not fare so well. We made 
several attempts on Canada, but they all failed. 

England sent over 4000 men, who took Washington 



Il6 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

and burned the town with all its public buildings. 
This act of shame was done under strict orders from 
home. It was intended to fill us with dread of what 
might be expected. A second force was sent to New 
Orleans, where General Jackson routed them with a 
loss of half its men. This ended the war. Peace 
was made in 1815. 

In February, 1815, the welcome and unexpected 
news of Peace reached Congress, which adjourned 
March 15, 1815, after repealing the Acts which had 
been necessary in preparing for and carrying on the 
war. This peace marks the final extinction of the 
Federalist party. 

The position of New England in the war is ex- 
plained by her exposed position. Such of the militia 
as served, endured great hardships, and they were 
constantly called from their homes to meet new dan- 
gers. The coast towns of Massachusetts were sub- 
jected to constant assault from the British navy, and 
the people felt that they were defenceless. It was 
on their petition that the legislature of Massachusetts 
finally, by a vote of 226 to 67, adopted the report 
favoring the calling of the Hartford Convention. 
These delegates were all members of the Federal 
party, and their suspected designs and action made 
the ** Hartford Convention" a byword and reproach 
in the mouths of Democratic orators for years there- 
after. It gave to the Democrats, as did the entire 
history of the war, the prestige of superior patriotism, 
and they profited by it as long as the memory of the 
War of 181 2 was fresh. Indeed, directly after the 
war, all men seemed to keep in constant view the 
reluctance of the Federalists to support the war, and 



JAMES MADISON. 117 

their almost open hostility to it in New England. 
Peace brought prosperity and plenty, but not bt)liv- 
ion of the old political issues, and this was the be- 
ginning of the end of the Federal party! Its decay 
thereafter was rapid and constant. 

The next four Congresses continued Democratic. 
Clay had taken part in negotiating the treaty, and 
on his return was for the third time elected Speaker. 
Though 65 Federalists had been elected, but 10 votes 
were given to Federal candidates for Speaker, this 
party now showing a strong, and under the circum- 
stances, a very natural desire to rub out party lines. 
The internal taxes and the postage rates were reduced. 

Louisiana was admitted to the Union on April 3, 
1812 ; and Indiana came in on December 11, 1816. 

President Madison, in his message to Congress, 
urged a revision of the tariff, and acting on his 
recommendation what was at the time called a pro- 
tective tariff was passed. Calhoun then supported 
it, while Clay proclaimed that protection must no 
longer be secondary to revenue, but of primary im- 
portance. The rates fixed, however, were insuf- 
ficient, and many American manufacturers were 
soon crowded out by excessive importations of for- 
eign manufactures. The position of Calhoun and 
Lowndes, well known leaders from South Carolina, 
is explained by the fact that just then the proposal 
of a protective tariff zvas popular in the Souths in 
view of the heavy duties upon raw cotton zvhich Eng- 
land then imposed. The Federalists in weakness 
changed their old position when they found the 
Democrats advocating a tariff, and the latter quoted 
and published quite extensively Alexander Hamil- 



Il8 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

ton's early report in favor of it. Daniel Webster of 
Massachusetts, in the House at that time and a 
leading Federalist, was against the bill. The par- 
ties had exchanged positions on the question. 

Peace brought with it another exchange of posi- 
tions. President Madison, although he had vetoed a 
bill to establish a National Bank in 1815, was now 
(in 1816) anxious for the establishment of such an 
institution. Clay had also changed his views, and 
claimed that the experiences of the war showed the 
necessity for a national currency. The bill met 
with strong opposition from a few Democrats and 
nearly all of the Federalists, but it passed and was 
signed by the President. 

A bill to promote internal improvements, advo- 
cated by Clay, was at first favored by Madison, but 
his mind changed and he vetoed the measure — the 
first of its kind passed by Congress. 

When the Democrats held their caucus for the 
nomination of candidates to succeed Madison and 
Gerry, it was understood that the retiring ofiicers 
and their confidential friends favored James Monroe, 
of Virginia. Their wishes were carried out, but 
not without a struggle, Wm. H. Crawford of 
Georgia receiving 54 votes against 65 for Monroe. 
The Democrats, opposed to Virginia's domination 
in the politics of the country, directed the effort 
against Monroe. Daniel D. Tompkins of New York 
was nominated by the Democrats for Vice-President. 
The Federalists named Rufus King of New York, 
but in the election which followed he received but 
24 out of 217 electoral votes. The Federalists 
divided their votes for Vice-President. 



JAMES MADISON. 



119 



Madison retired from public life on March 4, 1817, 
and went home to his farm, where he spent the 




Wir,I,IAM H. CRAWFORD. 



remainder of his life. He died at Montpelier, 
Virginia, on June 28, 1836, aged 85 years. 



I20 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

Griswold says of him, '' This great statesman was 
the confidential, personal and political friend of 
Jefferson, but in almost every respect their characters 
were essentially different. Madison's intellect was 
of a far higher order, and its ascendency over his 
passions was nearly perfect. His triumphs were 
those of pure reason. His public and private life 
were above reproach. His writings on the Consti- 
tution and other subjects were second only to those of 
Hamilton in ability and influence ; and his extensive 
information, sound judgment, skill as a logician, 
and unvarying courtesy, secured him the highest 
consideration in the Congresses of which he was a 
member." 

Jefferson left this record of his lifelong friend 
Madison: " From three-and- thirty years' trial, I can 
say conscientiously, that I do not know in the world 
a man of purer integrity, more dispassionate, 
disinterested, and devoted to pure Republicanism ; 
nor could I, in the whole scope of America and 
Europe, point to an abler head." 



JAMES MONROE— 1817-1825. 

James Monroe, the fifth President, was born in 
Virginia, April 28, 1758. His earliest American 
ancestor was an officer in the army of Charles I, who 
emigrated to Virginia in 1652. It was a significant 
fact that the persecutions of the Non-Conformists 
peopled New England with the Pilgrims and Puri- 
tans; while the establishment of the Commonwealth 



JAMES MONROE. 



121 



under Cromwell drove the Cavaliers to Virginia; and 
to their united and harmonious efforts we owe the 
establishment of our Republic. 




JAMES MONROE. 



During the Revolutionary War, Monroe served for 
some time in the army, which he quitted after the 
battle of Monmouth, in 1778, rejoining it when his 



122 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

own State was invaded in 1781. He studied law 
under Jefferson, and when he was but 25 years old 
was elected a delegate to the Continental Congress. 
He represented us at Paris, and became Governor of 
his State when he returned to America. Mr. Jeffer- 
son sent him in 1802 as Envoy to France to nego- 
tiate for a right of depot on the Mississippi. But he 
attempted a far more important measure, for within 
fourteen days from his arrival in Paris, he had pur- 
chased the entire territory of L,ouisiana, the most 
important and diplomatic act in the history of this 
Republic. 

He was inaugurated on March 4, 1817. His cabi- 
net was composed of men of rare political distinction, 
even in that day of great men ; yet these men were 
universally accepted as great without regard to their 
localities. Among them were John Quincy Adams, 
Secretary of State; William H. Crawford, Secretary 
of the Treasury; John C. Calhoun, Secretary of War; 
Benjamin Crowninshield, Secretary of the Navy; and 
William Wirt, Attorney-General. All were avowed 
Democrats, except Adams, and he had for some years 
forsaken the Federalists. Monroe, on his first em- 
bassy to Paris, was so strongly attached to the princi- 
ples of the French Revolution that he was thought 
to have neglected the interests of the Government, 
and was recalled by Washington. On his second 
mission to Paris, in 1802-3, he conducted, with Liv- 
ingston, the negotiations for the cession of Louisiana; 
and when in London, in 1806, he concluded, with 
William Pinckney, that treaty concerning the dis- 
puted matters between England and America which 
Jefferson refused to allow. He was a man of good 



JAMES MONROE. 



123 



judgment, of cautious and prudent views, and of 
untiring perseverance in the conduct of business; 
but in original genius he was inferior to his prede- 




ill 



JOHN CAI^DWELI/ CAI^HOUN. 



cessors. In character, his amiability was equal to 
that of Madison. He was universally respected, and 
his inaugural address was considered satisfactory by 
most sections of the country. Shortly after his 



124 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

accession, he made a three months' tour through a 
large part of the Union, passing from Maine, in the 
east, to Detroit, in the west. Jefferson disapproved 
of these progresses, as having too monarchical a 
character; but Washington had in practice given 
them his sanction. 

Monroe found the manufacturing interests of the 
country in a very embarrassed state, owing to the 
competition of British goods, which, by reason of the 
great improvement of machinery, in England, could 
be much more cheaply produced there than here, and 
which, but for the duties it was considered necessary 
to impose on them, would probably have extinguished 
the native manufactures altogether. The industrial 
arts, in which we now hold so conspicuous a place, 
were in a very rude condition in 1817. During the 
colonial days of English-America, all manufactures 
there were not merely discountenanced, but actually 
forbidden, by the British Parliament. The working 
of iron promised at one time to be a great source of 
profit to the New Englanders; but it was prohibited 
by the Imperial Government. So also with regard 
to so slight a matter as the manufacture of hats: 
everything which could interfere with English traders 
was suppressed. Shortly after our Independence, 
attempts were made to establish manufactories of 
various textile fabrics; but, owing to the dearness of 
labor, the want of capital, and the absence of ma- 
chinery, very little was effected. The imposition of 
the embargo at the close of 1807 was the first circum- 
stance which gave a decided encouragement to our 
manufacturers. The people were compelled to fall 
back upon their own resources, and, notwithstanding 



JAMES MONROE. 1 25 

a few failures at the beginning, considerable progress 
was made in a surprisingly short time. The value 
of native manufactured goods, as early as 1810, was 
$170,000,000; in 1814, it was probably $200,000,000. 
The exclusion of foreign commodities during the 
war had the natural effect of enhancing the price of 
those which were produced at home; and our manu- 
facturers were beginning to drive a good trade, when 
the restoration of peace interfered with their pros- 
pects. The country was inundated with British and 
other European productions; and for some while, 
until legislation of 2, protectionist character came to 
the assistance of the native manufacturer, all indus- 
tries of this kind sank considerably. From 1818, 
however, they revived, and thenceforward entered 
on a stage of progressive development. 

While manufactures suffered, agriculture enjoyed 
a period of great prosperity. The number of persons 
engaged in agricultural pursuits in the year 1820 was 
2,070,646; and the value of all American products 
(including cotton, tobacco, flour and rice), exported 
during the year 1823, ^^^ $37,646,000. The vast 
provinces of the West were being colonized by fami- 
lies from the Eastern States, and by emigrants from 
Great Britain and Ireland, who, arriving in large 
numbers every year, added materially to the popula- 
tion of the Republic, and widened the area of culti- 
vated land. Within ten years of the peace — which 
brings us to about the close of Monroe's Administra- 
tion — five new States had grown up in those wild 
domains which had only recently been hunting- 
grounds for the red man. England had for more 
than a hundred years contributed scarcely anything 



126 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

to the peopling of America. As America wanted 
what England had in excess, we were immense 
gainers by these large immigrations, and thencefor- 
ward made progress with amazing rapidity. In De- 
cember, 1817, the Mississippi Territory was divided, 
and the western portion admitted into the Union as 
the State of Mississippi, while the eastern remained 
for a short time longer as a dependent province, 
under the title of the Alabama Territory. The latter 
included a portion of Georgia, which was given up 
for a consideration. 

Monroe's first inaugural leaned toward Clay's 
scheme of internal improvements, but questioned its 
constitutionality. Clay was next to Jefferson the 
most original of all our statesmen and politicians. 
He was prolific in measures, and almost resistless in 
their advocacy. From a political standpoint he was 
the most direct author of the War of 181 2, for his 
advocacy mainly brought it to the issue of arms, 
which, through him and Calhoun, were substituted 
for diplomacy. Calhoun then stood in broader view 
before the country than since. His sectional pride 
and bias had been rarely aroused, and, like Clay, he 
seemed to act for the country as an entirety. 

From an early period in the century, the Spanish 
colonies in the South had been engaged in insurrec- 
tionary wars against the mother country, and some 
had succeeded in establishing their independence. 
It was the obvious policy of our Government to en- 
courage these young Republics, and thus destroy the 
influence of Spain. Monroe very emphatically 
asserted the dogma that the monarchical form of 
government ought not to exist on this Continent — a 



JAMES MONROE. 137 

political principle which", under the designation of 
the "Monroe Doctrine," has been widely received 
from that time to the present. In his Message in 
1823, ^^ asserted the "Monroe Doctrine" in these 
terms: "We owe it to candor and to the amicable 
relations between the United States and the European 
Powers to declare that we should consider any attempt 
on their part to extend their system to any portion 
of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and 
safety." 

In 18 1 7 the Seminole Indians, joined by a few of 
the Creeks, and by some runaway negroes, began to 
commit depredations on the frontiers of Georgia and 
Alabama. General Gaines was despatched to sup- 
press these risings, and to remove every Indian from 
the territory which the Creeks had ceded to the 
United States. He was overmatched in numbers, 
however, and got into so dangerous a position that 
General Jackson was sent to his aid. This vigorous 
officer, acting on his own responsibility, raised a large 
force of Tennessee horsemen, in addition to the reg- 
ular army with which he was supplied, and at once 
marched into the Indian territory, which he speedily 
overran. He was ordered not to enter Florida, except 
in pursuit of an enemy; but this was little more than 
a cover to furnish a decent reply to Spain in case the 
progress of events should be such as to lead to a 
remonstrance from her. In his message, the Presi- 
dent stated that " where the authority of Spain ceases 
to exist, there the United States have a right to pur- 
sue their enemy, on a principle of self-defence." At 
that time, the authority of the Spaniards did not 
extend, in Florida, much beyond the garrisons of 



128 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

Pensacola and St. Augustine; so that an invasion of 
the province seems to have been contemplated from 
the first. It was within the boundaries of Florida 
that the strongholds of the offending Indians were 
to be found; and into this country General Jackson 
advanced. He took possession of the weak Spanish 
post of St. Mark, and arrested two British subjects, 
Alexander Arbuthnot and Robert Ambrister, who 
were accused before a court-martial of having acted 
as emissaries among the Southern Indians, and in- 
citing them to hostilities. They being found guilty, 
were condemned to death, and both were executed 
on April 30, 18 18. Jackson then marched on Pen- 
sacola, the capital of the province, expelled the 
Spanish authorities, and asserted the rule of the 
United States over the whole territory. The Spanish 
governor protested against the invasion of his Sover- 
eign's realm; but Jackson was not the man to heed 
such remonstrances, or to stand very long on niceties 
of international law. "Damn Puffendorf and Gro- 
tius," he was heard to say ; " this is only a question 
between Jim Monroe and myself" The governor 
and his followers fled on horseback to Pensacola Bay, 
where Jackson had no difficulty in stamping out re- 
sistance to his authority. Three days after the flight 
of the governor, Barrancas was captured by Jackson, 
and the Spanish officials and troops were sent to 
Havana. 

The proceedings of Jackson had been of a ques- 
tionable character, and they formed a topic of remon- 
strance in Congress. The conduct of the Seminole 
War was investigated by a committee, and the report 
of this body severely censured the general. It de- 




OSCEOIvA, CHIt;F OF THE SEMINOI^EJS. 



129 



I30 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



clared that he had disregarded the orders of the War 
Department; and had committed gross breaches of 
the Constitution and the laws. These charges were 
just; but Jackson had the merit of success, and, hav- 
ing secured a large accession of splendid territory, 
he was not wanting in supporters, and those the most 
influential. Congress was the scene of many excit- 
ing debates on the subject. Jackson contended that 
the Spaniards had persistently incited the Indians to 
their deeds of blood and rapine, and that prompt and 
efficient measures were absolutely necessary. The 
majority of the people adopted this view, and friends 
succeeded in carrying through Congress a vote of 
exculpation. 

The addition of Florida was now an accomplished 
fact, though it still wanted the sanction of legal form. 
We were in possession, and Spain, distracted by civil 
war over the whole of what had once been her vast 
domains in the New World, was unable to expel us. 
In 1819, a treaty was made by which Spain ceded to 
the United States both East and West Florida, 
together with the adjacent islands. Florida was 
erected into a Territory in February, 1821, and in 
the following month General Jackson was appointed 
its first governor. He had a difficult task to per- 
form. 

The recognition of the Spanish-American Repub- 
lics by the United States fallowed. In 1819, the 
southern portion of Missouri w^as formed into a Ter- 
ritorial Government under the name of Arkansas; 
and in December of the same year Alabama was 
admitted into the Union. Early in 1820, Maine, 
which had for nearly 200 years been a portion of 



JAMES MONROE. 



131 



Massachusetts, was severed from that State and suf- 
fered to enjoy a distinct existence as a State of our 
Union. Maine had originally been settled by the 




INDIAN WARRIORS. 

French, and was long a ground of contention between 
that nation and the English. The Colonial Govern- 
ment of Massachusetts forcibly assumed jurisdiction 
about 1652, and in 1677 purchased the whole prov- 



132 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

ince. The people of Maine, however, though as well 
disposed towards the Republican cause during the 
War of Independence as any other part of the Fed- 
eration, did not approve of their connection with 
the State which had its capital at Boston. They 
desired to follow their own ways, and from 1820 
downwards they have enjoyed that wish. 

Missouri applied for admission to the Union, and 
this demand was made the occasion of a violent 
debate in Congress, on the vexed question of slavery. 
A Bill was introduced into Congress, containing a 
provision which forbade the existence of slavery in 
Missouri, when that Territory should be constituted 
as a State. The subject was fiercely argued during 
the whole session; the country caught the excite- 
ment, and the usual cry of disruption was raised. 
When Secession at last came, in 1861, it was no new 
idea: it had been threatened again and again — now 
by the North-east, and now by the South, according 
as the objects of either seemed imperilled. The divi- 
sion between these two Q:reat sections was stron^lv 
marked — m sou, in climate, in political institutions, 
in social customs, and in material interests; and the 
battle never raged more hotly, as far as language was 
concerned, than during this period. The North- 
eastern States, which had put an end to negro bond- 
age among themselves, were strongly opposed to any 
extension of the detestable system into States about 
to be admitted to the Union. The South was equally 
desirous of widening the area of African servitude, 
in order that in the Senate there might be a majority 
of States pledged to support the custom, together 
with all those interests which were bound up in its 



JAMES MONROE. I33 

existence. The Missourians themselves were in- 
clined to go with the South ; and, having refused to 
adopt a clause for the prohibition of slavery, the 
Northern States obstructed their admission into the 
Union. Thus the battle hung : the North taking 
its stand upon the cruel and immoral character of 
slavery ; the South maintaining that, even if objec- 
tionable in itself, it was part of the existing order of 
things, and could not be suddenly abolished, or even 
curtailed, without serious danger to the whole social 
fabric. The slave trade had been suppressed for 
several years ; but slaves were bred at home, and 
sold by one State to another. The Western States 
in this way produced a good many slaves, and found 
a profit in disposing of them to other parts of the 
country. Missouri, wishing to*share in these gains, 
violently resisted the restriction which the Northern 
members of Congress desired to impose, and threat- 
ened in 1 8 19 to constitute itself a sovereign and 
entirely independent State, if not admitted to the 
Union on its own terms. The question was settled 
by a compromise on February 28, 1821, in accordance 
with which slavery was to be tolerated in Missouri, 
but prohibited in all other parts of the Union north 
and west of the northern limits of Arkansas ; and 
upon this understanding Missouri, on August 21, 
1820, was admitted to the Union as its twenty-fourtli 
member. Such was the "Missouri Compromise," 
which will appear again in our history, as a source 
of dispute and recrimination. 

This parting of the Federation into two divisions, 
with distinct and opposing interests, seemed to Jef- 
ferson a danger of a very menacing kind. He was 



134 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

not an admirer of slavery, though he did not clearly 
see his way to getting rid of it ; and he was too 
wise and patriotic a citizen to desire a dissolution of 
the Union which he had done so much to create. 
He considered the proposed action of Congress, in 
imposing regulations on the several States with 
regard to the extension of slavery, as grossly uncon- 
stitutional. But the idea of a line of geographical 
demarcation, involving a different system of politics 
and morals, he feared would gather force with time, 
reappear again and again, and in the end produce so 
deadly a feeling of mutual hate that separation 
would become preferable to eternal discord. His 
anticipations were disastrously realized forty-one 
years later. 

The year 1820 irsarked a period of financial dis- 
tress in the country. The army was reduced, and 
the general expenses of the departments cut down, 
despite which measures of economy the Congress 
deemed it necessary to authorize the President to 
contract for a loan of $5,000,000. Distress was the 
cry of the day ; relief the general demand. The 
banks failed, money vanished, instalments were com- 
ing due which could not be met, and Congress was 
saluted by the arrival of memorials from all the new 
States praying for relief to the purchaser of the 
public lands. The President referred to it in his 
Message and Congress passed a measure of relief by 
changing the system to cash sales instead of credit, 
reducing the price of the lands, and allowing 
present debtors to apply payments already made to 
portions of the land purchased, relinquishing the 
remainder. Applications were made at that time 



JAMES MONROE. 13^ 

for the establishment of the pre-emptive system, but 
without effect ; the new States contiuued to press 
the question and finally prevailed, so that now the 
pre-emptive principle has become a fixed part of our 
land system, permanently incorporated with it, and 
to the equal advantage of the settler and the Govern- 
ment. 

During the discussion of the Missouri question, 
the President and Vice-President were r-e-elected for 
another term of four years. The second election 
of Monroe, in 1820, was accomplished without a 
contest. Out of 231 electoral votes, but one was cast 
against him, and that for John Quincy Adams. Mr. 
Tompkins, the candidate for Vice-President, was 
only a little less fortunate, there being 14 scattering 
votes against him. The Federal party was now 
nearly extinct. Although it still counted several 
members capable of making considerable opposition 
in Congress, it was devoid of all effective organiza- 
tion, and had little influence in the country generall}^ 
The policy of Monroe had been popular ; his adminis- 
tration had been successful ; and the Democrats had 
no difficulty in carrying him again into power. 
Two measures of his government were particularly 
well received by the people of the United States. 
One of these was an Act for making provision for 
the surviving officers and soldiers of the Revolution 
— an Act which was subsequently extended, so as to 
include the widows and children of those who had 
already departed ; the second was an arrangement, 
made with Great Britain in October of the same 
year, by which we were allowed to share with Eng- 
lish subjects in the fisheries of Newfoundland. It 



136 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

was at this period also that the boundary of the 
United States towards Canada, from the Lake of the 
Woods to the Rocky Mountains, was defined. 

The remaining events of Monroe's Presidency are 
neither numerous nor weighty. 

The revision of the tariff, with a view to the pro- 
tection of home industry, and to the establishment 
of what was then called "The American System,'^ 
was one of the large subjects before Congress at the 
session of 1823-24, and was the regular commence- 
ment of the heated debates on that question which 
afterwards ripened into a serious difficulty between 
the Federal Government and some of the Southern 
States. The Presidential election being then de- 
pending, the subject became tinctured with party 
politics. The protection of domestic industry not 
being among the powers granted, was looked for in 
the incidental ; and denied by the strict construction- 
ists to be exercised for the direct purpose of pro- 
tection ; but admitted by all at that time, and ever 
since the first Tariff Act of 1789, to be an incident to 
the revenue-raising power, and an incident to be re- 
garded in the exercise of that power. Revenue the 
object, protection the incident, had been the rule in 
the earlier tariffs ; now that rule was sought to be 
reversed, and to make protection the object of the 
law, and revenue the incident. Henry Clay was the 
leader in the proposed revision and the champion of 
the American System ; he was supported in the 
House by many able and effective speakers, who 
based their arguments on the general distress then 
alleged to be prevalent in the country. Daniel Web- 
ster was the leading speaker on the other side, and 



JAMES MONROE. 137 

disputed the universality of the distress which had 
been described ; and contested the propriety of high 
or prohibitory duties, in the present active and 
intelligent state of the world, to stimulate industry 
and manufacturing enterprise. 

The bill was carried by a close vote in both Houses. 
Though brought forward avowedly for the protec- 
tion of domestic manufactures, it was not entirely 
supported on that ground ; an increase of revenue 
being the motive with some, the public debt then 
being nearly ninety millions. An increased pro- 
tection to the products of several States, as lead in 
Missiouri and Illinois, hemp in Kentucky, iron in 
Pennsylvania, wool in Ohio and New York, com- 
manded many votes for the bill ; and the im- 
pending Presidential election had its influence in its 
favor. 

Two of the candidates, Adams and Clay, voted 
for and avowedly supported General Jackson, wlio 
voted for the bill, and was for it as tending to give a 
home supply of the articles necessary in time of war, 
and as raising revenue to pay the public debt; Craw- 
ford opposed it, and Calhoun had withdrawn as a 
Presidential candidate. The Southern planting 
States were dissatisfied, believing that the new bur- 
dens upon imports, which it imposed, fell upon the 
producers of the exports, and tended to enrich one 
section of the Union at the expense of another. 
The attack and support of the bill took much of a 
sectional aspect : Virginia, the two Carolinas, 
Georgia, and some others, being against it ; Penn- 
sylvania, New York, Ohio, and Kentucky being for 
it. Massachusetts, which up to this time had no 



138 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

small influence in commerce, voted, with all except 
one member, against it. With this sectional aspect, 
a tariflf for protection also began to assume a politi- 
cal aspect, being taken under the care of the party 
afterwards known as Whig. The bill was approved 
by President Monroe; a proof that that careful and 
strict constructionist of the Constitution did not con- 
sider it as deprived of its revenue character by the 
degree of protection which it extended. 

Having now filled the Presidential chair for nearly 
eight years, Monroe determined to follow the patri- 
otic precedent set by Washington and Jefferson and 
Madison, and to retire from any further candidature. 

In the election of 1824 ^^^"^ candidates were before 
the people for the office of President — General Jack- 
son, John Quincy Adams, William H. Crawford and 
Henry Clay. None of them received a majority of 
the 261 electoral votes, and the election devolved 
upon the House of Representatives. John C. Cal- 
houn had a majority of the electoral votes for the 
office of Vice-President, and was elected. Adams 
was elected President by the House of Representa- 
tives, who voted by States, from the three candidates 
who had the most votes, although General Jackson was 
the choice of the people, having received the greatest 
number of votes at the general election. The elec- 
tion of Adams was perfectly constitutional, and as 
such fully submitted to by the people; but it was a 
violation of the "voice of the people" principle; 
and that violation was equally rebuked. All the 
representatives who voted against the will of their 
constituents lost their favor, and disappeared from 
public life. The representation in the House of 



JAMES MONROE. 13^ 

Representatives was largely changed at the next 
election, and presented a full opposition to the new 
President. Mr. Adams himself was injured by it, 
and at the ensuing Presidential election was beaten 
by General Jackson more than two to one. 

Clay, who took the lead in the House for Mr. 
Adams, and afterwards took upon himself the mis- 
sion of reconciling the people to his election in a 
series of public speeches, was himself crippled in 
the effort, lost his place in the Democratic party, and 
joined the Whigs (then called the National Repub- 
licans). The Democratic principle was victor over 
the theory of the Constitution, and beneficial results 
ensued. It vindicated the people in their right and 
their power. It re-established parties upon the basis 
of principle, and drew anew party lines, then almost 
obliterated under the fusion of parties during the 
''era of good feeling," and the efforts of leading 
men to make personal parties for themselves. It 
showed the conservative power of our Government 
to lie in the people, more than in its constituted 
authorities. It showed that they were capable of 
exercising the function of self-government} and 
lastly, it assumed the supremacy of the Democracy 
for a long time. The Presidential election of 1824 
is remarkable under another aspect — its results cau- 
tioned all public men against future attempts to 
govern Presidential elections in the House of Rep- 
resentatives; and it put an end to the practice of 
caucus nominations for the Presidency by members 
of Congress. They were dropped, and a different 
mode adopted — that of party nominations by con- 
ventions of delegfates from the States. 



I40 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



In the spirit of pure democracy, Monroe, in re- 
tiring to his residence in Virginia, accepted the office 
of justice of the peace. He finally removed to the 
residence of his son-in-law, in New York city, where, 
at the age of 73, he peacefully breathed his last on 
the anniversary of the birth of the nation, being the 
third President who had departed on that memorable 
day. He is buried in Richmond, Virginia. 

The eight years of his Presidency were known as 
the era of good feeling. We had conquered our 
enemies by land and sea, at home and abroad, and a 
long and glorious period of peace and prosperity had 
come to the young Republic. In the beginning of 
his first term, he visited all the Eastern and Western 
States. It was a proper tribute to pay to millions 
of men who had never seen their favorite chief; and 
wherever he went he was received with tokens of 
affectionate recognition. The sharp and angry pas- 
sions of other days were allayed. He had not been 
elected by the triumph of a party — he was chosen 
to lead the nation, and he did it with the calmness, 
impartiality and integrity of a great and good man. 
Under his administration the whole country pros- 
pered. 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS— 1825-1829. 

John Quincy Adams, the sixth President, son of 
John Adams, the second President, was born in Mas- 
sachusetts, July II, 1767. Born while Faneuil Hall 
was ringing with the fiery eloquence of his father, 
and of Samuel Adams his relative, he breathed from 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 



141 



his infancy the atmosphere of patriotism and states- 
manship. In his eleventh year he went to France 




JOHN OUINCY ADAMS. 



with his father, who had been sent as Minister. He 
went to Russia as private secretary to Chief-Justice 



142 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

Dana, then the American Minister. He returned 
home, entered Harvard College, and after graduating 
studied law and opened an office for its practice in 
Boston. In 1794 Washington appointed him Min- 
ister to the Hague. Afterwards he was elected to 
the Senate. When the second war with England 
was approaching, President Madison instructed him 
to leave St. Petersburg and join the other commis- 
sioners sent to negotiate the Peace Treaty at Ghent. 
On Monroe's accession to the Presidency, in 1817, 
he became his Secretary of State, which office he 
held when he was himself elected President. 

He was inaugurated March 4, 1825. He called 
to his Cabinet Henry Clay as Secretary of State; 
Richard Rush of Pennsylvania was appointed Sec- 
retary of the Treasury; and James Barbour of Vir- 
ginia assumed the War Secretaryship; William Wirt 
was continued in the office of Attorney-General. 

In his inaugural address, Mr. Adams observed: 
* 'Since the period of our Independence, a population 
of four millions has multiplied to twelve; a territory 
bounded by the Mississippi has been extended from 
sea to sea; and States have been admitted to the 
Union in numbers nearly equal to those of the first 
Federation. Treaties of peace, amity, and commerce 
have been concluded with the principal dominions 
of the earth. All the purposes of human association 
have been accomplished as effectually as under any 
other Government on the globe, and at a cost little 
exceeding in a whole generation the expenditure of 
other nations in a single year." The great parties 
of Federalists and Democrats, which had so long 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 143 

divided the country (by a conclusion more sanguine 
than correct) he pronounced to be extinct. 

Adams was accused of having made a corrupt 
bargain with Henry Clay to defeat the selection of 
Andrew Jackson in the House by the promise of 
making him his Secretary of State. This office had 
come to be looked upon as the stepping-stone to the 
Presidency. Credence was given to this accusation 
when Clay received his appointment. Clay angrily 
denied that any such bargain ever was entered into. 

In his inaugural address, the chief topic was that 
of internal national improvement by the Federal 
Government. This declared policy of the adminis- 
tration furnished a ground of opposition against 
Adams, and went to the reconstruction of parties on 
the old line of strict, or loose, construction of the 
Constitution. It was clear from the beginning that 
the new administration was to have a settled and 
strong opposition, and that founded in principles of 
government. Men of the old school, survivors of 
the contest of the Adams and Jefferson times, divided 
accordingly — the Federalists going for Adams, the 
Republicans against him, with the mass of the 
younger generation. The Senate by a decided ma- 
jority, and the House by a strong minority, were 
opposed to the policy of the new President. 

A bill was introduced to do away with all inter- 
mediate agencies in the election of President and 
Vice-President and give the election to the direct 
vote of the people. But the amendments did not re- 
ceive the requisite support of two-thirds of either the 
Senate or the House. This movement was not of a 
partisan character; it was equally supported and 



144 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



Opposed by Senators and Representatives of both 
parties. Substantially the same plan was recom- 
mended later by President Jackson. 

A fruitless attempt was now made to limit the 
President's appointing power by the Democrats try- 
ing to pass a tenure of office bill, as applicable to 
Government employees and office-holders; it pro- 
vided, "that in all nominations made by the Presi- 
dent to the Senate, to fill vacancies occasioned by an 
exercise of the President's power to remove from 
office, the fact of the removal shall be stated to the 
Senate at the same time that the nomination is 
made, with a statement of the reasons for which 
such officer may have been removed." It was also 
sought at the same time to amend the Constitution 
to prohibit the appointment of any member of Con- 
gress to any Federal office of trust or profit, during 
the period for which he was elected; the design 
being to make the members wholly independent of 
the Executive, and not subservient to the latter, and 
incapable of receiving favors in the form of bestowals 
of official patronage. 

The tariff of 1828 is an era in our political 
legislation; from it the doctrine of "nullification" 
originated, and from that date began a serious di- 
vision between the North and the South. This 
tariff law was projected in the interest of the woolen 
manufacturers, but ended by including all manu- 
facturing interests. The passage of this measure 
was brought about, not because it was favored by a 
majority, but because of political exigencies. In 
the then approaching Presidential election, Adams, 
who was in favor of the "American System," 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 145 

supported by Clay (his Secretary of State) was 
opposed by General Jackson. This tariff was made 
an administration measure, and became an issue in 
the canvass. The New England States, which had 
formerly favored free trade, on account of their 
commercial interests, changed their policy, and, led 
by Webster, became advocates of the protective 
system. The question of protective tariff had 
now not only become political, but sectional. The 
Southern States, as a section, were arrayed against 
the system, though prior to 1816 they had favored 
it. In fact these tariff bills, each exceeding the other 
in its degree of projection, had become a regular 
feature of our Presidential elections, starting in 1816 
and followed up in 1820-24, and now in 1828, with 
successive augmentations of duties; the last being 
often pushed as a party measure, and with the 
visible purpose of influencing the Presidential elec- 
tion. General Jackson was elected, having received 
178 electoral votes to 83 received by John Quincy 
Adams. Richard Rush, of Pennsylvania, who was 
on the ticket with Adams, was defeated for the office 
of Vice-President, and John C. Calhoun of South 
Carolina was elected to that office. 

Adams retired from the Presidency, March 4, 1829. 
He was returned to Congress by the district in which 
he lived and which he continued to represent for 
nineteen years, till his death in 1848. 

Having been chosen merely on account of his 
determined resistance to secret societies, his position 
was independent of party politics, and correspond- 
ingly strong. He ran for the oflSce of Governor, and 
then for that of "Senator, of Massachusetts, but was 
10 



146 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

Oil both occasions defeated. As chairman of the 
committee on manufactures, he strove to devise a 
middle policy in regard to tariffs, but his greatest 
effort at this period — perhaps the greatest service of 
his whole political life — was in connection with the 
abolition of slavery. In every form which the ques- 
tion took, he was the bold and determined advocate 
of abolition, gradually gathering an influential 
party around him, and so preparing for the triumphs, 
most of which have been won since his death. He 
himself witnessed, in 1845, the abolition of the "gag- 
rule," restricting the right of petition to Congress 
on the subject of slavery, which he had persistently 
opposed during the nine years it was in for-ce. 
"With unwavering firmness." says W. H. Seward, 
"against a bitter and unscrupulous opposition, 
exasperated to the highest pitch by his pertinacity — 
amidst a perfect tempest of vituperation and abuse — 
he persevered in presenting these petitions [against 
slavery] one by one, to the amount sometimes of 200 
in one day." He died of paralysis on February 23, 
1848, having been seized two da3'S previously while 
attending the debates of Congress. At 80 years of 
age he was called "The old man eloquent." His 
mind was a storehouse of facts. His patriotism and 
love of country wers ardent. He lacked tact as a 
politician, and did not understand the sentiments and 
feelings of the common mind. He had no gift for 
winning friends, his cold manners and his disregard 
for the opinions of others made him enemies who 
succeeded in preventing his re-election. 
He is buried at Quincy, Massachusetts. 



ANDRE W J A CKSON. 147 



ANDREW JACKSON— 1829-1837. 

Andrew Jackson, our sixth President, was born 
in North Carolina, March 15, 1767. He was the son 
of an Irishman who emigrated to this country in 
1765, and died poor in 1767. His education was of 
the most limited kind and he showed no fondness 
for books. Had his parents delayed their emigration 
much longer, he would have lost what he called 
"the great privilege of being born on American 
soil.'' With an elder brother, at the age of thirteen, 
he joined the militia after the terrible massacre by 
Tarleton, and became a prisoner in 1781. After the 
war, and the death of his brother, he worked hard 
to support his mother, who had been left utterly 
destitute. Removing to Charleston, he studied law, 
and before he was 20 years old was admitted to the 
bar. From that time began his successful career as 
a lawyer in Tennessee, whither he had emigrated. 
In 1796 he was elected to Congress, where he served 
during the last year of Washington's second term. 
He gained so much popularity that the following 
year he was elected to the Senate. He left the 
Senate to become a judge of the Supreme Court of 
Tennessee. He was diverted from civil pursuits to 
the army, where he displayed the highest abilities 
as a general, both in organizing and conducting 
troops. The victory at New Orleans on January 8, 
1815, ending in the entire defeat of the British army, 
crowned his military fame, and opened the way to 
the Presidency. In 1829 ^^^ became President, and 
was re-elected to continue his administration till 



148 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



1837. With very few exceptions, no soldier or states- 
man has won the admiration of his country by 
nobler deeds, or established a fairer claim to its grat- 
itude for his patriotism and unspotted integrity in 
his administration of public affairs. The people 
believed him to be fearless and honest; his political 
opponents declared he was only stupid and stubborn. 
Be that as it may, he acted up to his sense of duty, 
and no considerations could induce him to de- 
sert it. 

He was inaugurated on March 4, 1829, ^"^ called 
John Van Buren of New York to his Cabinet as 
Secretary of State, where he remained only two years. 
He had many changes in his Cabinet. It was Wil- 
liam L. Marcy, a Senator from New York, who used 
the celebrated expression, "To the victors belong the 
spoils," so often erroneously attributed to Jackson. 
Jackson believed in it, and acted upon it; he made 
more removals in one year than did all the other 
Presidents in the preceding forty years. Early in 
Monroe's administration, in the "era of good feel- 
ing," Jackson wrote him in these words: "Now is 
the time to exterminate that monster, called party 
spirit. By selecting [for cabinet officers] characters 
most conspicuous for their probity, virtue, capacity, 
and firmness, without regard to party, you will go 
far to, if not entirely, eradicate those feelings which, 
on former occasions, threw so many obstacles in the 
way of government. The chief magistrate of a great 
and powerful nation should never indulge in party 
feelings. His conduct should be liberal and disin- 
terested; always bearing in mind that he acts for 
the whole and not a part of the community." With 



150 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



new times and new men the above good advice was 
forgotten, or possibly had to be ignored. 

The election of Jackson was a triumph of demo- 
cratic principle, and an assertion of the people's 
right to govern themselves. That principle had 
been violated in the Presidential election in the 
House of Representatives in the session of 1824-25; 
and the sanction, or rebuke, of that violation was a 
question in the whole canvass. It was also a tri- 
umph over the high protective policy, and the 
Federal internal improvement policy, and the loose 
construction of the Constitution; and of the Democ- 
racy over the Federalists, then called National Re- 
publicans; and was the re-establishment of parties 
on principle, according to the landmarks of the early 
years of the Government. 

The short session of 1829-30 was rendered famous 
by the long and earnest debates in the Senate on the 
doctrine of nullification, as it was then called. It 
started with a proposition to limit the sales of the 
public lands to those then in the market, and to 
suspend the surveys of the public lands. The effect 
of such a resolution, if carried into effect, would 
have been to check emigration to the new States in 
the West, and to check the growth and settlement 
of these States and Territories. It was warmly op- 
posed by Western members; and during the debate, 
Webster referred to the famous ordinance of 1787 for 
the government of the North-western Territory, and 
especially the anti-slavery clause which it contained. 

Kentucky and Ohio were instanced as examples, 
and the superior improvement and population of 
Ohio were attributed to its exemption from the evils 



ANDRE W J A CKSON. 1 5 1 

of slavery by Webster. This was an excitable sub- 
ject, and the more so because the wounds of the 




ANDREW JACKSON. 



Missouri controversy, in which the North was the 
undisputed aggressor, were still tender. Mr. Hayne 
from South Carolina, representing Calhoun, the 



152 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS, 



Vice-President, answered with warmth and resented 
as a reflection upon the Slave States this disadvan- 
tageous comparison. This brought about the great 
debate, which is given in the school readers, and 
which we do not think it necessary to here repeat. 

The President called attention to the expiration, 
in 1836, of the charter granted to the Bank of the 
United States. He doubted the constitutionality 
and expediency of the law creating the bank, and 
was opposed to a renewal of the charter. His view 
of the matter was that, if such an institution was 
deemed a necessity, it should be made a national 
one, in the sense of being founded on the credit of 
the Government and its revenues, and not a corpo- 
ration independent from and not a part of the Gov- 
ernment. The House of Representatives favored the 
renewal of the charter. 

Thus was the "War of the Bank " begun in Con- 
gress, and in the public press; and openly at the 
instance of the bank itself, which set itself up as a 
power, and struggled for continued existence, by a 
demand for renewal of its charter. It allied itself 
to the political power opposed to the President, 
joined in all their schemes of protective tarifif and 
national internal improvement, and became the head 
of the American system. Its moneyed and political 
power, numerous interested affiliations, and control 
over other banks and fiscal institutions, was great 
and extensive, and a power which was exercised 
and made to be felt during the struggle to such a 
degree that it threatened a danger to the country 
and the Government almost amounting to a national 
calamity. 



ANDRE W J A CKSON. 1 5 3 

The subject of renewal of the charter was agitated 
at every succeeding session of Congress until 1836. 

In December, 1831, the National Republicans 
nominated candidates. Henry Clay was the candi- 
date for the office of President, and John Sergeant 
for that of Vice-President. The address to the 
people presented the party issues which were to be 
settled at the ensuing election, the chief subjects 
being the tariff, internal improvement, removal of 
the Cherokee Indians, and the renewal of the United 
States Bank charter. Thus the bank question was 
fully presented as an issue in the election by that 
part of its friends who classed politically against 
Jackson. But it had also Democratic friends without 
whose aid the re-charter could not be got through 
Congress, and they labored assiduously for it. 

Bitter was the contest between the President on 
the one side and the bank and its supporters in the 
Senate on the other side. The conduct of the bank 
produced distress throughout the country, and was 
so intended to coerce the President. Distress peti- 
tions flooded Congress, and the Senate even passed 
resolutions of censure of the President. The latter, 
however, held firm in his position. Webster was a 
Federal leader on both occasions — against the char- 
ter in 181 6; for the re-charter in 1832. The bill 
passed the Senate after a long contest; and passed 
the House with little or no contest at all. 

It was sent to the President, and vetoed by him 
July 10, 1832; the veto being based mainly on the 
unconstitutionality of the measure. The veto was 
sustained. The downfall of the bank speedily fol- 
lowed: it soon afterwards became a total financial 



154 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



wreck, and its assets and property were seized on 
executions. With its financial failure it vanished 
from public view, and public interest in it, and con- 
cern with it, died out. 

The American system, and especially its promi- 
nent feature of a high protective tariff, was put in 
issue, in the Presidential canv^ass of 1832; and the 
friends of that system labored diligently in Congress 
in presenting its best points to the greatest advan- 
tage; and staking its fate upon the issue of the 
election. It was lost; not only by the result of the 
main contest, but by that of the congressional elec- 
tion which took place simultaneously with it. All 
the States dissatisfied with that system were satisfied 
with the view of its speedy and regular extinction, 
under the legislation of the approaching session of 
Congress, excepting only South Carolina. She held 
aloof from the Presidential contest, and cast her elec- 
toral vote for persons who were not candidates — 
doing nothing to aid Jackson's election, with whom 
her interests were apparently identified. On No- 
vember 24, 1832, two weeks after the election which 
decided the fate of the tariff", that State issued an 
"Ordinance to nullify certain acts of the Congress 
of the United States, purporting to be laws laying 
duties and imposts on the importation of foreign 
commodities." It declared that Congress had ex- 
ceeded its constitutional powers in imposing high 
and excessive duties on the theory of "protection," 
had unjustly discriminated in favor of one class or 
employment, at the expense and to the injury and 
oppression of other classes and individuals; that said 
laws were not binding on the State and its citizens; 



ANDREW JACKSON. 



155 



and declared its right and purpose to enact laws to 
prevent the enforcement and arrest the operation of 




DANIKTv WEBSTER. 



said acts within the limits of that State after the 
first day of February following. This ordinance 
placed the State in the attitude of forcible resistance 



156 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

to the laws of the United States. The ordinance 
of nullification was certified by the Governor of 
South Carolina to the President of the United States, 
and reached him in December. The President im- 
mediately issued a proclamation, exhorting the 
people of South Carolina to obey the laws of Con- 
gress; pointing out and explaining the illegality of 
the procedure; stating clearly and distinctly his firm 
determination to enforce the laws as became him as 
Executive, even by resort to force if necessary. He 
declared that " The Constitution of the United States 
forms a government, not a league; and whether it 
be formed by a compact between the States, or in 
any other manner, its character is the same. * * 
* * To say that any State may at pleasure secede 
from the Union, is to say that the United States are 
not a nation; because it would be a solecism to con- 
tend that any part of a nation might dissolve its 
connection with the other parts, to their injury or 
ruin, without committing any offence." 

Bills for the reduction of the tariff were intro- 
duced, while at the same time the President, though 
not relaxing his efforts towards a peaceful settlement 
of the difficulty, made steady preparations for en- 
forcing the law. The result of the bills offered in 
the two Houses of Congress was the passage of 
Clay's "compromise" bill on February 12, 1833, 
which radically changed the whole tariff system. 

The President recommended the revival of some 
Acts, heretofore in force, to enable him to execute 
the laws in South Carolina; and the Senate reported 
such a bill. It was assailed as violent and unconsti- 
tutional, tending to civil war, and denounced as 



ANDRE W JACKSON. j^y 

'' the bloody bill "—the '^ force bill," etc. Webster 
justified the bill, both for the equity of its provi- 
sions, and the necessity for enacting them. He said 
that an unlawful combination threatened the integ- 
rity of the Union; that the crisis called for a mild, 
temperate, forbearing, but inflexibly firm execution 
of the laws; and finally, that public opinion sets 
with an irresistible force in favor of the Union, in 
favor of the measures recommended by the President, 
and against the new doctrines which threatened the 
dissolution of the Union. He supported the cause 
of the Constitution and of the country, in the person 
of a President to whom he was politically opposed, 
whose oratitude and admiration he earned for his 
patriotic endeavors. The country, without distinc- 
tion of party, felt the same; and the universality 
of the feeling was one of the grateful instances 
of popular applause and justice when great talents 
are seen exerting themselves for the good of the 
country. He was the colossal figure on the political 
stage during that eventful time; and his labors, 
splendid in their day, survive for the benefit of dis- 
tant posterit3\ 

In 1834 a measure was introduced for equalizing 
the value of gold and silver, and legalizing the ten- 
der of foreign coin, of both metals. The good effects 
of the bill were immediately seen. Gold began to 
flow into the country through all the channels of 
commerce, foreign and domestic; the mint was busy; 
and specie payment, which had been suspended in 
the country for thirty years, was resumed, and gold 
and silver became the currency of the land ; inspiring 
confidence in all the pursuits of industry. 



1^8 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

Agitation of the slavery question in the United 
States really began about this time. Congress in 
1836 was flooded with petitions urging Federal in- 
terference to abolish slavery in the States; beginning 
with the petition of the Society of Friends of Phila^ 
delphia, urging the abolition of slavery in the Dis- 
trict of Columbia. 

Arkansas was admitted as a State into the Union, 
June 15, 1836, and Michigan followed on January 
26, 1837. 

The Presidential election of 1836 resulted in the 
choice of the Democratic candidate. Martin Van 
Buren, of New York, was elected by 170 electoral 
votes; his opponent, William Henry Harrison, re- 
ceiving 73 electoral votes. Scattering votes were 
«iven for Webster and others. President Jackson 
delivered his last annual message, under circum- 
stances exceedingly gratifying to him. The power- 
ful opposition in Congress had been broken down, 
and he had the satisfaction of seeing full majorities 
of ardent and tried friends in each House. The 
country was in peace and friendship with all the 
world; all exciting questions quieted at home; in- 
dustry in all its branches prosperous, and the revenue 
abundant. And as a happy sequence of this state of 
affairs, the Senate on March 16, 1837, expunged 
from their Journal the resolution, adopted three 
years previously, censuring the President for order- 
ing the removal of the deposits of public money in 
the United States Bank. He retired from the 
Presidency with high honors, and died eight years 
afterwards at his home, the celebrated " Hermitage," 
in Tennessee, in full possession of all his faculties, 



MARTIN VAN BUR EN. 



159 



and strong to the last in the ruling passion of his 
soul to sacrifice everything but honor to the glory of 
his native land. He is buried in Nashville, Tenn. 



MARTIN VAN BUREN— 1837-1841. 

Martin Van Buren, our eighth President, was 
born at Kinderhook, in New York, December 5, 
1782. All former Presidents had been direct de- 
scendants from Britons, and they had been born 
before the Revolution, and participated in its events. 
Van Buren' s ancestors were Hollanders. 

He was educated at the academy in his native 
village, studied law and was admitted to the Bar in 
1803. He was distinguished neither for great learn- 
ing nor eloquence; but was patient in study, and 
rapid in acquisition. He was ready in debate, care- 
ful to wariness in every utterance and act; sagacious 
as a politician, and genial in public and private life; 
winning friends on all sides, and retaining them by 
his loyalty. He took an active part in politics and 
was elected a State Senator in 1812. He advocated 
the second war against England; and voted for the 
protective tariff of 1828. 

In 1815 he became Attorney-General of the State 
of New York, and in 1828 was elected its Governor. 
He afterwards served in the Senate; was appointed 
Minister to England; and in 1832 was elected Vice- 
President with Jackson, whose successor he became. 



l6o LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

Though he did not win a brilliant reputation, he 
retired with honor. 

He was inaugurated March 4, 1837, and declared 
his intention ''to follow in the footsteps of his 
illustrious predecessor." He therefore caught the 
first full effects of the storm produced by his prede- 
cessor's financial policy, from which even Jackson's 
popularity and admitted honesty would hardly have 
saved him. 

The President was scarcely settled in his new 
office when a financial panic struck the country with 
irresistible force. A general suspension of the banks, 
a depreciated currency, and insolvency of the Federal 
Treasury were at hand. The public money had been 
placed in the custody of the local banks, and the 
notes of all these banks, and of all others in the 
country, were received in payment of public dues. 
On May 10, 1837, the banks throughout the country 
suspended specie payments. The stoppage of the 
deposit banks was the stoppage of the Treasury. 
Non-payment by the Government was an excuse for 
non-payment by others. The suspension was now 
complete; and it was evident, and as good as ad- 
mitted by those who had made it, that it was the 
effect of contrivance on the part of politicians and 
the so-called Bank of the United States (which had 
now become a State corporation chartered by Penn- 
sylvania in January, 1836) for the purpose of restoring 
themselves to power. The promptitude with which 
the Bank of the United States was brought forward 
as a remedy for the distress showed that it had been 
held in reserve for that piirpose; and the delight with 
which the Whig party saluted the general calamity, 



MARTIN VAN BUREN, 



l6l 



showed that they considered it their own passport 
to power. ^ 

Congress met in September, 1837, ^^ ^^ ^"^^ ^f 




MARTIN VAN BUREN. 



the President, whose message was a review of the 
events and causes which had brought about the 
panic; a defence of the policy of the "specie cir- 



l62 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

cular,^' and a recommendation to break off all con- 
nection with any bank of issue in any form, looking 
to the establishment of an Independent Treasury, 
and that the Government provide for the deficit in 
the Treasury by the issue of Treasury notes and by 
withholding the deposit due to the States uuder the 
Act then in force. The message and its recommen- 
dations were violently assailed both in the Senate and 
House; but the measures proposed by the Executive 
were in substance enacted; and their passage marks 
an era in our financial history — making a total and 
complete separation of Bank and State, and firmly 
establishing the principle that the Government reve- 
nues should be receivable in coin only. 

The next Presidential election was now at hand. 
The same candidates who fought the battle of 1836 
were again in the field. Van Buren was the Demo- 
cratic candidate. His administration had been satis- 
factory to his party, who commended his nomination 
for a second term to the different States in appointing 
their delegates; so that the proceedings of the con- 
vention which nominated him were entirely harmo- 
nious and formal in their nature. Richard M. 
Johnson, the actual Vice-President, was also nomi- 
nated for Vice-President. 

On the Whig ticket, William Henry Harrison of 
Ohio was the candidate for President, and John 
Tyler of Virginia for Vice-President. The leading 
statesmen of the Whig party were again put aside, 
to make way for a military man, prompted by the 
example in the nomination of General Jackson, the 
men who managed Presidential elections believing 
that military renown was a passport to popularity 



» 



MARTIN VAN BUREN. 163 

and rendered a candidate surer of election. Avail- 
ability was the only ability asked for. Clay, the most 
prominent Whig in the country, and the acknowl- 
edged head of the party, was not deemed available; 
and although Clay was a candidate before the con- 
vention, the proceedings were so regulated that his 




THE CAPlTOIv AT AI.BANY, NEW YORK. 

nomination was referred to a committee, ingeniously 
devised and directed for the purpose of preventing 
his nomination and securing that of General Har- 
rison; and of producing the intended result without 
showing the design, and without leaving a trace be- 
hind to show what was done. The result of this 
secret committee balloting was: For General Scott, 



164 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



16 votes; for Mr. Clay, 90 votes; for General Harri- 
son, 148 votes. As the law of the convention im- 
pliedly required the absorption of all minorities, the 
106 votes were swallowed up by the 148 votes and 
made to count for General Harrison, presenting him 
as the unanimous candidate of the convention, and 
the defeated candidates and all their friends were 
bound to loyally join in his support. And in this 
way the election of 1840 was effected. 

The contest before the people was a long and 
bitter one — the severest ever known in the country 
up to that time. The whole Whig party and the 
large league of suspended banks, headed by the Bank 
of the United States, making its last struggle for a 
new national charter in the effort to elect a President 
friendly to it, were arrayed against the Democrats, 
whose hard-money policy and independent treasury 
schemes, met with little favor in the then depressed 
condition of the country. Meetings were held in 
every State, county, and town; the people thor- 
oughly aroused, and every argument made in favor 
of the respective candidates and parties, which could 
possibly have any effect upon the voters. The can- 
vass was a thorough one, and the election was carried 
for the Whig candidates, who received 234 electoral 
votes coming from 19 States. The remaining 60 
electoral votes of the other 9 States, were given to 
the Democratic candidate; though the popular vote 
was not so unevenly divided ; the actual figures being 
1,275,611 for the Whig ticket, against 1,135,761 for 
the Democratic ticket. It was a complete rout of 
the Democratic party, but without the moral effect 
of victory. 



MARTIN VAN BUREN. jgr 

In this campaign the Abolitionist, or Liberal party, 
nominated James G. Birney of New York and 
Francis Lemoyne of Pennsylvania. Their platform 
favored the abolition of slavery in the District of 
Columbia and Territories, the inter-State slave trade, 




CITY HAI.I., NEW YORK CITY, 

and a general opposition to slavery to the full extent 
of constitutional power. They polled 7,609 votes. 

As a business man, Van Buren had no superior. 
He transacted business without any apparent effort 
or labor, and it never accumulated on his hands. In 



1 66 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



the 1844 Convention he received a majority of the 
votes, but owing to his objection to the annexation 




GENERAL WINFIEIvD SCOTT. 



of Texas and the adoption of the two-thirds rule, 
failed of a nomination. In 1848, at the solicitation 
of his friends, he reluctantly consented to run again 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 



167 



wheu there was no hope of an election. This error 
of his friends defeated all future chances of success. 
In person he was of medium size, but became large 
in his old age. He was always neat in dress, and 
was in comfortable circumstances. On retiring from 
the Presidency he returned to his native town, where 
he died July 24, 1862. 



WIIvUAM HENRY HARRISON— 1841 {31 days). 

William Henry Harrison, the ninth President, 
was born in Virginia, February 9, 1773. He was 
the youngest son of Governor Benjamin Harrison, a 
signer of the Declaration of Independence, and had 
the advantages of education, culture, patriotic 
souvenirs and early acquaintance with the scenes 
of frontier life. At nineteen he joined the army 
and served in the campaigns against the Western 
Indians. His command of Fort Washington, where 
Cincinnati now stands, secured for him in 1797 the 
secretaryship of the territory north-west of the Ohio, 
of which he was three years later chosen Delegate 
to Congress. In 1801 on the division of the Terri- 
tory, he was appointed Governor of that portion 
which now embraces Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, 
and Wisconsin. That vast tract was held by 
Indians, whose ferocities were restrained by treaties 
till they were inflamed by Tecumseh, when Harri- 
son advanced victoriously against them in 1811 at 
Tippecanoe. 

The 181 2 War with England now came on and 



i68 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



Tecumseh entered the British service and the In- 
dians became more hostile than ever. Perry's vic- 




WITvLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 



tory on Lake Erie enabled Harrison to drive the 
British and their savage allies across the line into 
Canada, where they were totally routed, covering 



JOHN TYLER. l6g 

the victorious general with a glory which finally 
carried him to the Presidency. After years of civil 
service he was elected, in 1824, '^^ the United States 
Senate. Retiring to his farm on the Ohio for twelve 
years, his services having made him the most popu- 
lar citizen of the Great West, he was nominated to 
the Presidency, and a wave of popular enthusiasm 
secured his triumph. The friends of Van Buren 
attempted to cast upon his rival the most un-Ameri- 
can slurs. They accused him of living in a log- 
cabin; with nothing to drink but hard cider. Bor- 
rowing these emblems from their enemies, they be- 
came the watchword of the Whigs, and everywhere 
log-cabins sprang up as if by magic, and hard cider 
became the popular drink. Harrison was inaugu- 
rated March 4, 1841, being the first President who 
was not a Democrat, since Jackson's installation in 
1829. '^^ ^^s Cabinet he called some of the most 
famous men of the party, and it was greeted with 
inspiring auguries. He was the oldest of our Presi- 
dents, and the infirmities of age led to physical pros- 
tration under the pressure of the new situation, and 
in one short month he was borne to his grave, 
leaving for himself a cherished memory and an 
honorable fame. He died April 4, 1841; and was 
buried at North Bend, Ohio. 



JOHN TYLER— 1841-1845. 

John Tyler, the tenth President, reached the 
Presidency through the death of General Harrison 
who had been in office but one month. This was the 



I^o LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

first time in the history of our Government the Vice- 
President had become President under the Constitu- 
tion. He was inaugurated April 6, 1841; and his 
administration was crowded with extraordinary 
events. 

President Tyler was born in Virginia, March 29, 
1790. His father was Governor of Virginia from 
1808 till 181 1. At the age of twelve he was fully 
prepared to enter William and Mary College, from 
whence he graduated in 1806. He served in the Legis- 
lature for several years till 18 16, when, at the age of 
26, he was elected to Congress. At the close of his 
second term he was elected Governor of his State, 
whence he was advanced to the Senate. He voted 
for the censure on Jackson's conduct in Florida; 
opposed the U. S. Bank, the protective policy, and 
internal improvements by the National Government; 
opposed the administration of Adams and the Tariff 
Bill of 1828; sympathized with the nullification 
measures of South Carolina and was the only 
Senator who voted against the Force Bill for the 
repression of that incipient secession; voted for 
Clay's Compromise Bill, and his resolutions censur- 
ing Jackson for the removal of the deposits, although 
he believed the Bank unconstitutional ; was regarded 
as a martyr to the Whig cause, and consequently 
supported by mau}^ of them in the campaign of 1836 
for the Vice-Presidency, but was then defeated. He 
retained Harrison's Cabinet in office; and was ex- 
pected to approve whatever a Whig Congress should 
do. His first message confirmed this expectation. 
Bills were reported for repealing the Independent 
Treasury, for chartering a bank, for distributing the 



JOHN TYLER. 



171 



proceeds of land-sales, and an insolvent law, under 
the name of a Bankrupt Act, and all were passed 




JOHN TYIvKR. 



by Congress. The Bank Act was alone vetoed by 
Tyler, who objected to some of its provisions. A 



172 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

second bill, with these modified, was passed; but 
this was also vetoed. This created a breach between 
the President and the Whigs who had elected him. 
A third bill was reported, but never acted upon. 

A Tariff Bill, fixing the rate of duties at twenty per 
cent, and regulating the free list, was passed and 
approved. This special session pleased neither 
party. The Whigs carried three measures; and the 
Democrats rejoiced at the defeat of the Bank Bill. 
Both parties had their complaints. At the very 
next session the Bankrupt Law and the Distribution 
Act were repealed by the Congress that enacted 
them; and in 1846 the Independent Treasury Act 
was re-enacted, and still remains, subject to such 
changes as were made by Secretary Chase in 1862. 

Much discussion took place over the bill offered in 
the House for the relief of the widow of the late 
President — General Harrison — appropriating one 
year's salary. It was strenuously opposed by the 
Democratic members, as unconstitutional, on account 
of its principle, as creating a private pension list, 
and as a dangerous precedent. Many speeches were 
made against the bill; the following extract from the 
speech of a senator contains some interesting facts. 
" Look at the case of Mr. Jefferson, a man than whom 
no one that ever existed on God's earth were the 
human family more indebted to. His furniture and 
his estate were sold to satisfy his creditors. His pos- 
terity was driven from house and home, and his 
bones now lay in soil owned by a stranger. Look 
at Monroe — the able, the patriotic Monroe, whose 
services were revolutionary, whose blood was spilt in 
the war of Independence, whose life was worn out 



JOHN TYLER. 



^IZ 



in civil service, and whose estate has been sold for 
debt, his family scattered, and his daughter buried 
in a foregn land. Look at Madison, the model of 
every virtue, public or private, and he would only 
mention in connection with this subject, his love of 
order, his economy, and his systematic regularity in 
all his habits of business. He, when his term of 
eight years had expired, sent a letter to a gentleman 
enclosing a note of five thousand dollars, which he 
requested him to endorse, and raise the money in 
Virginia, so as to enable him to leave this city, and 
return to his modest retreat in that State. General 
Jackson drew upon the consignee of his cotton crop 
in New Orleans for six thousand dollars to enable 
him to leave the seat of government without leaving 
creditors behind him. These were honored leaders 
of the Republican party. They had all been Presi- 
dents. They had made great sacrifices, and ieft the 
Presidency deeply embarrassed; and yet the Repub- 
lican party who had the power and the strongest dis- 
position to relieve their necessities, felt that they had 
no right to do so by appropriating money from the 
public Treasury. Democracy would not do this. 
It was left for the era of Federal rule and Federal 
supremacy — who are now rushing the country with 
steam power into all abuses and corruptions of a 
monarchy, with its pensioned aristocracy — to entail 
upon the country a civil pension list." 

There was an impatient majority in the House in 
favor of the passage of the bill. The circumstances 
were adverse to deliberation and the bill passed, and 
was approved; and as predicted, it established a prec- 
edent which has been followed in every similar case. 



174 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

The chief measure, and the great object of the 
Whig party — the one for which it had labored for 
ten years — was the recharter of a national bank. 
Without this all other measures would be deemed to 
be incomplete, and the victorious election itself but 
little better than a defeat. The President, while a 
member of the Democratic party, had been opposed 
to the United States Bank; and to overcome any 
objections he might have, the bill was carefully pre- 
pared, and studiously contrived to avoid the Presi- 
dent's objections, and save his consistency — a point 
upon which he was exceedingly sensitive. The 
Democratic members resisted strenuously, in order 
to make the measure odious, but successful resistance 
was impossible. It passed both Houses by a close 
vote; and contrary to all expectation the President 
vetoed the act, but with such expressions of readiness 
to approve a bill which should be free from the 
objections which he named, as still to keep his party 
together, and to prevent the resignation of his Cab- 
inet. In his veto the President fell back upon his 
early opinions against the constitutionality of a 
national bank, so often and so publicly expressed. 

The veto caused consternation among the Whig 
members; and Clay openly gave expression to his 
dissatisfaction, in the debate on the veto message, in 
terms to assert that President Tyler had violated his 
faith to the Whig party, and had been led oif from 
them by new associations. He said: "And why 
should not President Tyler have suffered the bill to 
become a law, without his signature? Without 
meaning the slightest possible disrespect to him, it 
cannot be forgotten that he came into his present 



JOHN TYLER. 



175 



office under peculiar circumstances. The people did 
not foresee the contingency which has happened. 
They voted for him as Vice-President. They did 
not, therefore, scrutinize his opinions with the care 
which they ought to have done, and would have 
done, if they could have looked into futurity." 

The vote was taken on the bill over again, as re- 
quired by the Constitution, and it received only a 
bare majority, and was returned to the House with a 
message stating the objection to it, where it gave 
rise to some violent speaking, more directed to the 
personal conduct of the President than to the objec- 
tions to the bill stated in his message. The veto 
was sustained ; and so ended the second attempt to 
resiiscitate the old United States Bank under a new 
name. This second movement to establish the bank 
has a secret history. It almost caused the establish- 
ment of a new party, with Tyler as its head; earnest 
efforts having been made in that behalf by many 
prominent Whigs and Democrats. The entire Cabi- 
net, with the exception of Webster, resigned within 
a few days after the second veto. It was a natural 
thing for them to do, and was not unexpected. 
Webster had resolved to tender his resignation also, 
but on reconsideration determined to remain. 

The conduct of the President in the vetoes of the 
two bank bills produced revolt against him in the 
party; and the Whigs in Congress held several meet- 
ings to consider what they should do in the new con- 
dition of affairs. The rejection of the bank bill 
gave great vexation to one side, and equal exultation 
to the other. The subject was not permitted to rest, 
however ; a national bank was the life — the vital 



176 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

principle — of the Whig party, without which it 
could not live as a party; it was the lever which 
was to give them power and the political and finan- 
cial control of the Union. A second attempt was 
made, four days after the veto, to accomplish the 
end by amendments to a bill relating to the cur- 
rency, which had been introduced early in the 
session. The bill was pushed to a vote with 
astonishing rapidity, and passed by a decided 
majority. Concurred in by the Senate without alter- 
ation, it was returned to the House, and thence re- 
ferred to the President for his approval or disap- 
proval. It was disapproved. An address to the 
people set forth that, for twelve years the Whigs 
had carried on a contest for the regulation of the 
currency, the equalization of exchanges, the eco- 
nomical administration of the finances, and the 
advancement of industry — all to be accomplished 
by means of a national bank — declaring these objects 
to be misunderstood by no one, and the bank itself 
held to be secured in the Presidential election, and 
its establishment the main object of the extra ses- 
sion. ***** ^i^e President by his withdrawal 
of confidence from his real friends in Congress and 
from the members of his Cabinet ; by his bestowal 
of it upon others, notwithstanding their notorious 
opposition to leading measures of his administration, 
has voluntarily separated himself from those by 
whose exertions and suffrao^e he was elevated to that 
office through which he has reached his present 
exalted station. * * * * '^\\^ consequence is, that 
those who brought the President into power can be 
no longer, in any manner or degree, justly held 



JOHN TYLER. 1 77 

responsible or blamed for the administration of the 
executive branch of the Government; and the Presi- 
dent and his advisers should be exclusively hereafter 
deemed accountable. * * * * 'V\\.^ Whig party re- 
coiled from the President, and instead of the unity 
predicted by Webster, there was diversity and wide- 
spread dissension. The Whig party remained with 
Clay; Webster retired, Gushing was sent on a foreign 
mission, and the President, seeking to enter the 
Democratic ranks, was refused by them, and left to 
seek consolation in privacy for his political errors 
and omissions. 

The extra session, called by Harrison, held under 
Tyler, dominated by Clay, commenced May 31, and 
ended Sept. 13, 1841 — and was replete with dis- 
appointed calculations, and nearly barren of per- 
manent results. The purposes for which it was 
called into being failed. 

In March, 1842, Henry Clay resigned his place in 
the Senate. He had intended this step upon the 
close of the previous presidential campaign, but had 
postponed it to take personal charge of the several 
measures which would be brought before Congress 
at the special session — the calling of which he fore- 
saw would be necessary. He resigned not on 
account of age, or infirmity, or disinclination for 
public life; but out of disgust — profound and in- 
extinguishable. He had been basely defeated for 
the Presidential nomination, against the wishes of 
the Whig party, he had seen his leading measures 
vetoed by the President whom his party had elected — 
the downfall of the Bank for which he had so often 
pledged himself — and the insolent attacks of the 



178 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

petty adherents of the administration in the two 
Houses: all these causes acting on his proud and 
lofty spirit, induced this withdrawal from public 
life for which he was so well fitted. 

Mr. Clay led a great party, and for a long time. 
It was surprising that, without power and patronage, 
he was able so long and so undividedly to keep so 
great a party together, and lead it so unresistingly. 
He had great talents, but not equal to some whom he 
led. He had eloquence superior in popular effect, 
but not equal in high oratory to that of some others. 
But his temperament was fervid, his will was strong, 
and his courage daring; and these qualities, added to 
his talents, gave him the lead and supremacy in his 
party, where he was always dominant. 

Again was the subject of the tariff considered, 
but this time, as a matter of absolute necessity, to 
provide a revenue. Never before were the coffers 
and the credit of the Treasury at so low an ebb. A 
deficit of fourteen millions in the Treasury — a total 
inability to borrow, either at home or abroad, the 
amount of the loan of twelve millions authorized 
the year before — the Treasury notes below par, and 
the revenues from imports inadequate and decreasing. 

The compromise act of 1833 in reducing the duties 
gradually through nine years, to a fixed low rate; 
the act of 1837 in distributing the surplus revenue; 
and the continual and continued distribution of the 
land revenue, had brought about this condition of 
things. The remedy was sought in a bill increasing 
the tariff, and suspending the land revenue dis- 
tribution. Two such bills were passed in a single 
month, and both vetoed by the President. The bill 



JOHN TYLER. I^q 

was finally passed raising the duties above twenty 
per cent., and approved by the President. 

The naval policy of the United States was a ques- 
tion of party division from the orio-in of parties in 
the early years of the Government — the Federal 
party favoring a strong and splendid navy, the Re- 
publican a moderate establishment, adapted to the 
purposes of defence more than of offence. A 
vote was taken upon the increase proposed by the 
Secretary of the Navy, and recommended by the 
President; and it was carried, the yeas and nays 
being well defined by the party line. 

The Congress met in December, 1843, ^^^^ showed 
serious losses in the Whig following. The Demo- 
cratic candidate for Speaker of the House was 
elected over the Whig candidate — the vote standing 
128 to 59. The President's message referred to the 
treaty which had lately been concluded with Great 
Britain relative to the north-western territory extend- 
ing to the Columbia river, including Oregon and 
settling the boundary lines; and also to a treaty with 
Texas for her annexation to the United States; and 
concluded with a recommendation for the establish- 
ment of a paper currency to be issued and controlled 
by the Federal government. 

Before the meeting of the Presidential Conven- 
tion, in May 1844, i^ was evident to leading Demo- 
crats that Martin Van Buren was the choice of the 
party. To overcome this popular current and turn 
the tide in favor of Calhoun, who desired the nomi- 
nation, resort was had to the pending question of the 
annexation of Texas. Van Buren was known to 
be against it, and Calhoun for it. To gain time, the 



l8o LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

meeting of the convention was postponed, and when 
it met, consisted of 266 delegates, a decided majority 
of whom were for Van Buren and cast their votes 
accordingly on the first ballot. But a chairman had 
been selected who was adverse to his nomination; 
and aided by a rule adopted by the convention, which 
required a concurrence of two-thirds to effect a nom- 
ination, the opponents of Van Buren were able to 
accomplish his defeat. Calhoun had made known 
his determination not to suffer his name to go before 
that assemblage as a candidate for the Presidency; 
his reasons for so doing resting on the manner in 
which the convention was constituted; he contend- 
ing for district elections, and the delegates to vote 
individually. South Carolina was not represented 
in the convention. After the first ballot Van Buren' s 
vote sensibly decreased, until finally, James K. Polk, 
who was a candidate for the Vice-Presidency, was 
brought forward and nominated for the chief office. 
Geo. M. Dallas was chosen for the Vice-Presidency. 
The nomination of these gentlemen was a surprise 
to the country. 

The Whig convention nominated Henry Clay for 
President, and Theodore Frelinghuysen for Vice- 
President. 

The issues in the election which ensued were 
mainly the party ones of Whig and Democratic, 
modified by the tariff and Texas questions. It re- 
sulted in the choice of the Democratic candidates, 
who received 170 electoral votes as against 105 for 
their opponents ; the popular majority for the Demo- 
crats being 238,284, in a total vote of 2,834,108. 
Clay received a large popular vote than had been 



JOHN TYLER. l8i 

given at the previous election for the Whig candi- 
date, showing that he would have been elected had 
he then been the nominee of his party; though the 
popular vote at this election was largely increased 
over that of 1840. It is conceded that the 36 elec- 
toral votes of New York State gave the election to 
Polk. Polk carried New York by about 5,000 votes. 
Harrison and Tyler's majority was 12,000. The 
*' Liberty " party ran James G. Birney as a sort of 
test of strength, but it cost Clay the State. The 
great issue was the annexation of Texas. In New 
York the Abolitionists were as much opposed to the 
annexation as were the Whigs, and yet Birney polled 
15,000 votes that would otherwise have gone to 
Clay and given him the electoral vote of the State 
and elected him President. Notwithstanding the 
party triumph, there was scarcely a Democrat there 
who did not feel a passing pang, at least, that 
"Harry of the West," "The Mill Boy of the 
Slashes," and the great Senator worthy of the 
palmy days of ancient Rome, had been defeated. It 
was a cruel blow of Fate, in her severest mood. 

Tyler's last message contained an elaborate para- 
graph on the subject of Texas and Mexico; the idea 
being the annexation of the former to the Union, 
and the assumption of her causes of grievance 
against the latter; and a treaty was pending to 
accomplish these objects. Before the end of May, a 
great meeting took place in South Carolina to com- 
bine the slave States in a convention to unite the 
Southern States to Texas, if Texas should not be 
received into the Union; and to invite the President 
to convene Congress to arranee the terms of the dis- 



l82 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

solution of the Union if the rejection of the annexa- 
tion should be persevered in. Responsive resolu- 
tions were adopted in several States. The opposi- 
tion manifested brought the movement to a stand, 
and suppressed the disunion scheme for the time 
being. 

Annexation was supported by all the power of the 
administration, but failed; it was rejected in the 
Senate by a two-thirds vote against it. Following 
this, a joint resolution was brought into the House 
for the admission of Texas as a State of the Union, 
by legislative action; it passed the House by a fair 
majority, but met with opposition in the Senate un- 
less coupled with a proviso for negotiation and treaty, 
as a condition precedent, and in this shape it was 
agreed to, and became a law March 3, 1845. Texas 
was then at war with Mexico, though an armistice 
had been agreed upon, looking to a treaty of peace. 

It has been charged that Tyler saw that Clay would 
be nominated as his successor, and felt stung by his 
overbearing and dictatorial course, and he therefore 
sought, by his peculiar course, to build up a separate 
party for himself, hoping to be made his own suc- 
cessor. If he entertained such views, he was sorely 
disappointed in the result. His course was such as 
to satisfy neither party. Instead of rising politically, 
Tyler sank down, and had few supporters in Con- 
gress and fewer elsewhere, except those in office. 

Personally, Tyler possessed many good qualities. 
He was benevolent, kind, and warm-hearted, and 
without greediness for money, or a disposition to 
trench upon the rights of others. He possessed some 
qualities that unfitted him for the Presidency. He 



JAMES K. POLK. 183 

was careless, indolent, easily persuaded to anything, 
where old Virginia doctrines did not point out the 
contrary way. He was not prompt nor firm like 
those governed by inflexible principles. If Virginia 
had fully settled the question, he was ready to con- 
form to it, but even then he was not always firm and 
immovable, but often drifted. On other questions 
he was apt to follow the course of an easy mind. 
The natural promptings of his mind were such as 
mankind could approve. The errors came in when 
he attempted to control his natural impulses and 
yield to those of selfish calculation. The attempt 
to limit him in the enjoyment of privileges which 
had been permitted all other Presidents has left more 
salutary enactments on the statute-book than were 
made in the same length of time since the repeal of 
the Alien and Sedition laws. He retired from ofiice 
execrated by all parties. He went with the seces- 
sionists, and was a secession member of Congress 
when he died, showing that he had outlived all the 
Whigism that he once had. He died at Richmond, 
Virginia, January 17, 1862. 



JAMES K. POIvK— 1845-1849. 

Jamks K. Polk, the eleventh President, was born 
in North Carolina on November 2, 1795. His im- 
mediate ancestors emigrated from Ireland. His 
father removed in 1806 to Tennessee. Graduating 
from the University of North Carolina in 18 18, he 
studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1820. 



r84 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



He was elected to the State Legislature in 1823^ ^^^ 
to Congress in 1825, where he continued fourteen 




JAMES K. POlvK. 



years; and from 1835 to 1839 was Speaker of the 
House. He was elected Governor of Tennessee in 



JAMES K. POLK. 1 85 

1839, and in 1844 ^^ was elected President by a small 
majority over Henry Clay. He had always been an 
ardent Democrat. He became distinguished as a 
well-informed statesman in his opposition to John 
Quincy Adams, and was leader in the House during 
Jackson's Administration. His incorruptibility was 
proverbial, and his enemies never questioned his 
truthfulness or integrity. He sought to be right, and 
when he believed he was so, nothing could turn him. 

He was inaugurated March 4, 1845, ^^^ called 
able men to his Cabinet. James Buchanan of Penn- 
sylvania was appointed Secretary of State; Robert 
J. Walker of Mississippi was made Secretary of the 
Treasury; William L. Marcy of New York assumed 
the War portfolio; and George Bancroft, the histo- 
rian, was selected for Secretary of the Navy. 

The House was largely Democratic. At this ses- 
sion the "American'' party — a new political organ- 
ization — first made its appearance in the national 
councils, having elected six members of the House, 
four from New York and two from Pennsylvania. 
The President's first message had for its chief topic 
the admission of Texas, then accomplished, and the 
consequent dissatisfaction of Mexico; and a recom- 
mendation for a revision of the tariff, with a view 
to revenue as the object, with protection to home 
industry as the incident. 

Florida and Iowa were admitted into the Union; 
the former permitting slavery within its borders, the 
latter denying it. Long before this, the free and the 
slave States were equal in number, and the practice 
had grown up — from a feeling of jealously and policy 
to keep them evenly balanced — of admitting one 



lg6 LIVES OF THE 'PRESIDENTS. 

State of each character at the same time. Numeri- 
cally the free and the slave States were thus kept 
even: in political power a vast inequality was going 
on — the increase of population being so much greater 
in the northern than in the southern region. 

Attempts were made in 1842, and continued to 
1846, to settle the north-western boundary line with 
Great Britain. It had been assumed that we had 
a dividing line, made by previous treaty, along the 
parallel of 54 degrees 40 minutes from the sea to the 
Rocky Mountains. The subject so much absorbed 
public attention, that the Democratic Convention of 
1844 i^ its platform declared for that boundary line, 
or war as the consequence. It became known as 
the 54-40 plank, and was a canon of political faith. 
The President had declared in his inaugural ad- 
dress in favor of the 54-40 line; and he was in a 
dilemma. To maintain that position meant war with 
Great Britain; to recede from it seemed impossible. 
Congress had come together under the loud cry 
of war, in which Lewis Cass was the leader, but 
followed by the body of the Democracy, and backed 
and cheered by the whole Democratic newspaper 
press. Under the authority and order of Congress 
notice had been served on Great Britain, which was 
to abrogate the joint occupation of the country by 
the citizens of the two powers. It was finally re- 
solved by the British Government to propose the 
line of 49 degrees, continuing to the ocean, as 
originally offered by Calhoun; and though the 
President was favorable to its acceptance, he could 
not, consistently with his previous acts, accept and 
make a treaty on that basis. lyord Ashburton, who 



JAMES K. POLK. 187 

had charge of the English interests, was a very keen 
and wily diplomatist. He met the Democratic 
clamor for "54-40 or fight" by saying to Calhoun 
and the Senate slave-holding oligarchy that in the 
event of a war we would undoubtedly take Canada, 
which would confer on the North such a political 
preponderance that the South would be overruled 
thereafter in Congress, and crushed in any disturb- 
ance she might initiate — the Canadian feeling being 
as pronounced against slavery as was that in the 
North and East. This settled the boundary question 
in a jiffy. 

The President's Message to the next Congress re- 
lated to the war with Mexico, which had been 
declared by almost a unanimous vote in Congress. 
Calhoun spoke against the declaration in the Senate, 
but did not vote upon it. He was sincerely opposed 
to the war, although his conduct had produced it. 
Had he remained in the Cabinet, to do which 
he had not concealed his wish, he would, no 
doubt, have labored earnestly to have prevented it. 
Many administration members of Congress were 
averse to the war. There was an impression that it 
could not last above three months. 

While this matter was pending in Congress, Mr. 
Wilmot of Pennsylvania introduced and moved a 
proviso, " that no part of the territory to be acquired 
should be open to the introduction of slavery. ' ' It 
was entirely unnecessary, as the only territory to be 
acquired was that of New Mexico and California, 
where slavery was already prohibited by the Mexi- 
can laws and constitution. The proviso only served 
to bring a slavery agitation on again. 



l88 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

The Congress, in December, 1837, was found, so 
far as respected the House, to be politically adverse 
to the administration. The Whigs were in the ma- 
jority and elected the Speaker. The President's 
Message contained a full report of the progress of 
the war with Mexico; the success of the American 
arms in that conflict; the victory of Cerro Gordo, 
and the capture of the City of Mexico; and that 
negotiations were then pending for a treaty of peace. 
The message concluded with a reference to the excel- 
lent results from the independent Treasury system. 

The war with Mexico was ended by the signing 
of a treaty of peace, in February, 1848, by the terms 
of which New Mexico and Upper California were 
ceded to the United States, and the lower Rio 
Grande, from its mouth to El Paso, taken for the 
boundary of Texas. For the territory thus acquired, 
the United States agreed to pay to Mexico the sum 
of $15,000,000, in five annual installments. The 
victories achieved by the American commanders — 
Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott — during that 
war, won for them national reputation, by means of 
which they were brought prominently forward for 
the Presidential succession. 

The question of the power of Congress to legislate 
on the subject of slavery in the Territories was again 
raised, on the bill for the establishment of the Oregon 
territorial government. 

Calhoun, in the Senate, declared that the exclusion 
of slavery from any Territory was a subversion of 
the Union; openly proclaimed the strife between 
the North and South to be ended, and the separation 
of the States accomplished. " The South," he said, 



JAMES K. POLK, 



189 



* * has now a most solemn obligation to perform— to 

herself— to the Constitution— to the Union. She is 




-.. CASS. 



bound to come to a decision not to permit this to o-q 
on any further, but to show that, dearly as she prizes 



IQO 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



the Union, there are questions which she regards as 
of greater importance than the Union. This is not 
a question of territorial government, but a question 
involving the continuance of the Union." The 
President, in approving the Oregon Bill, took occa- 
sion to send in a special Message, pointing out the 
danger to the Union from the progress of the slavery 
agitation, and urged an adherence to the principles 
of the ordinance of 1787 — the terms of the Missouri 
Compromise of 1820 — as also that involved and de- 
clared in the Texas case in 1845, ^^ the means of 
averting: that danger. 

The Presidential election of 1848 was coming on. 
The Democratic Convention met in May. The main 
question of the platform was the doctrine advanced 
by the Southern members of non-interference with 
slavery in the States or in the Territories. The 
candidates of the party were: Lewis Cass of Mich- 
igan for President, and William O. Butler of Ken- 
tucky for Vice-President. 

The Whig Convention, taking advantage of the 
popularity of Zachary Taylor for his military 
achievements in the Mexican War, then just ended, 
and his consequent availability as a candidate, nom- 
inated him for the Presidency, over Clay, Webster, 
and General Scott, who were his competitors before 
the convention. Millard Fillmore was selected as the 
Vice-Presidential candidate. 

A third convention was held, consisting of the 
disaffected Democrats from New York. They met 
and nominated Martin Van Buren for President, and 
Charles Francis Adams for Vice-President. The 
principles of its platform were: That Congress should 



JAMES K. POLK. igi 

abolish slavery wherever it constitutionally had the 
power to do so — [which was intended to apply to the 
District of Columbia] — that it should not interfere 
with it in the slave States — and that it should pro- 
hibit it in the Territories. This party became known 
as " Free-soilers," from their doctrines thus enumer- 
ated, and their party cry of "free soil, free speech, 
free labor, free men." The result of the election, 
as had been foreseen, was to lose New York State 
to the regular candidate, and give it to the Whigs, 
who were triumphant in the reception of 163 elec- 
toral votes for their candidates, against 127 for the 
Democrats; and none for the Free-soilers. 

In his last Message Polk urged upon Congress the 
necessity for some measure to quiet the slavery agi- 
tation, and he recommended the extension of the 
Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific Ocean, pass- 
ing through the new Territories of California and 
New Mexico, as a fair adjustment, to meet as far as 
possible the views of all parties. The President re- 
ferred also to the state of the finances; the excellent 
condition of the public Treasury; Government loans 
commanding a high premium; gold and silver the 
established currency; and the business interests of 
the country in a prosperous condition. And this 
was the state of affairs only one year after emergency 
from a foreign war. 

Although Polk could not rank among the great 
statesmen who had preceded him in that high office, 
yet his administration was made memorable by im- 
portant events which reflected lustre upon it. He 
was wise in the choice of his counsellors, and fortu- 
nate in their acts. The north-western boundary 



192 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



question was settled. Texas had been admitted, and 
the war with Mexico, which followed, was conducted 
with so much energy and success in the field, and 
the great ability of Marcy in the Cabinet, that the 
acquisition of a vast territory from Mexico, the im- 
mediate discovery of gold in California, and the 
impulse thus given to the advance in population to 
the Pacific, all combined to render the administra- 
tion of Polk a most memorable one in our history. 
Taken altogether, it realized what the old Federal- 
ists used to call "Jefferson's day-dreams." In the 
light of later events too much praise cannot be 
awarded to him for the distinct announcement, in 
the beginning of his term, that under no circum- 
stances would he allow himself to be considered a 
candidate a second time. He retired from office 
March 4, 1849, ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^ Nashville, June 15, 1849. 



ZACHARY TAYI.OR— 1849-1850. 

General Zachary Taylor, our twelfth Presi- 
dent, was born in Virginia, in 1784. His father was 
a colonel in the Continental Army and fought by 
the side of Washington. He entered the army in 
1808, and rose by regular gradations to be a major- 
general. He was engaged in fights with the Indians 
and brought the Seminole War to a close. His suc- 
cesses in the Mexican War gave him so much public 
favor that the Whigs nominated him for President 
in 1848, and elected him over Lewis Cass. Millard 
Fillmore, of New York, was elected with him ^s 
Vice-President, 



Z A CHARY TAYLOR. 



193 



He was inaugurated March 4, 1849. He chose a 
very able Cabinet, selecting all Whigs; although 




ZACHARY TAYLOR. 



frorn the gate of the capitol he announced his in- 
tention of conducting his administration on the 
13 



ig4 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

principles of the early Presidents — that he would be 
President of the nation and not of a party. He 
knew his want of qualifications for civil office; and 
frequently expressed his regret that he ever con- 
sented to run for the Presidency, saying that "Mr. 
Clay ought to have been in his place." He was 
65 years old when inaugurated and he was a confid- 
ing man and freely trusted his friends. He was but 
sixteen months in office, dying in Washington, July 

9, 1850. He was buried at Louisville, Kentucky. 
His death was a public calamity. No man could 

have been more devoted to the Union nor more 
opposed to the slavery agitation; and his position as 
a Southern man and a slaveholder — his military 
reputation, aud his election by a majority of the 
people as well as of the States, would have given 
him a power in the settlement of the pending ques- 
tions of the day which no President without these 
qualifications could have possessed. 

In accordance with the Constitution, the office of 
President thus devolved upon the Vice-President, 
Millard Fillmore, who was duly inaugurated July 

10, 1850. A new Cabinet, with Daniel Webster as 
Secretary of State, was appointed and confirmed by 
the Senate. 

Congress met in December, 1849. '^^^^ Senate con- 
sisted of sixty members, among whom were Web- 
ster, Calhoun, and Clay, who had returned to public 
life. The House had 230 members; and although 
the Whigs had a small majority, the House was so 
divided on the slavery question in its various phases, 
that the election for Speaker resulted in the choice 
of the Democratic candidate, Cobb, of Georgia, by 



u 




196 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



a majority of three votes. President Taylor's Mes- 
sage plainly showed that he comprehended the dan- 
gers to the Union from a continuance of sectional 
feeling on the slavery question, and he averred his 
determination to stand by the Union to the full 
extent of his obligations and powers. Congress had 
spent six months in endeavoring to frame a satis- 
factory bill providing territorial governments for 
California and New Mexico, and had adjourned 
without accomplishing it, in consequence of inability 
to agree upon whether the Missouri Compromise 
line should be carried to the ocean, or the Territories 
be permitted to remain as they were — slavery pro- 
hibited under the laws of Mexico. Calhoun brought 
forward, in the debate, a new doctrine — extending 
the Constitution to the Territory, and arguing that 
as that instrument recognized the existence of 
slavery, the settlers in such Territory should be per- 
mitted to hold their slave property taken there, and 
be protected. Webster's answer to this was that 
the Constitution was made for States, not Territories; 
that it cannot operate anywhere, not even in the 
States for which it was made, without acts of Con- 
gress to enforce it. The proposed extension of the 
Constitution to Territories, with a view to the trans- 
portation of slavery along with it, was futile and 
nugatory without the Act of Congress to vitalize 
slavery under it. 

The early part of the year had witnessed ominous 
movements — nightly meeting of members from the 
slave States, led by Calhoun, to consider the state 
of things between the North and the South. They 
prepared an address to the people. It was in this 



ZACHARY TAYLOR. 



197 



condition of things, that President Taylor expressed 
his opinion, in his Message, of the remedies re- 
quired. California, New Mexico and Utah, had 
been left without governments. For California, he 
recommended that having a sufficient population 
and having framed a Constitution, she be admitted 
as a State into the Union; and for New Mexico and 
Utah, without mixing the slavery question with 
their territorial governments, they be left to ripen 
into States, and settle the slavery question for them- 
selves in their State Constitutions. 

With a view to meet the wishes of all parties. 
Clay introduced compromise resolutions providing 
for the admission of California — the territorial gov- 
ernment for Utah and New Mexico — the settlement 
of the Texas boundary — slavery in the District of 
Columbia — and for a fugitive slave law. It was 
earnestly opposed by many, as being a concession to 
the spirit of disunion — a capitulation under threat 
of secession; and as likely to become the source of 
more contentions than it proposed to quiet. 

Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, afterwards Presi- 
dent of the Southern Confederacy, objected that the 
measure gave nothing to the South in the settlement 
'of the question; and he required the extension of the 
Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific Ocean as the 
least that he would be willing to take, with the 
specific recognition of the right to hold slaves in the 
Territories below that line; and that, before such 
Territories are admitted into the Union as States, 
slaves may be taken there from any of the United 
States at the option of their owner. 

Clay in reply said: *' Coming from a slave State, 



1^8 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

as I do, I owe it to myself, I owe it to truth, I owe 
it to the subject, to say that no earthly power could 
induce me to vote for a specific measure for the in- 
troduction of slavery where it had not before existed, 
either south or north of that line, ^k * * jf ^^ 
citizens of those Territories choose to establish 
slavery, I am for admitting them with such pro- 
visions in their Constitutions; but then it will be 
their own work, and not ours, and their posterity 
will have to reproach them, and not us, for forming 
Constitutions allowing the institution of slavery to 
exist among them." 

Following this, Calhoun said, "All the elements in 
favor of agitation are stronger now than they were 
in 1835, when it first commenced, while all the ele- 
ments of influence on the part of the South are 
weaker. Unless something decisive is done, what 
is to stop this agitation, before the great and final 
object at which it aims — the abolition of slavery in 
the States — is consummated ? If something decisive 
is not now done to arrest it, the South will be 
forced to choose between abolition and secession." 

Calhoun died in the spring of 1850, before the 
separate bill for the admission of California was taken 
up. His death, at 68, took place at Washington. 
He was the first great advocate of the doctrine of 
secession. He was the author of the nullification 
doctrine, and an advocate of the extreme doctrine of 
State Rights. He was an eloquent speaker — a man 
of strong intellect. His speeches were plain, strong, 
concise, sometimes impassioned, and always severe. 
Daniel Webster said of him, that "he had the basis, 
the indispensable basis of all high characters, and 



MILLARD FILLMORE. igg 

that was, unspotted integrity, unimpeached honor 
and character! " 

The bill to admit California was called up in the 
Senate and sought to be amended by extending the 
Missouri Compromise line through it, to the Pacific 
Ocean, so as to authorize slavery in the State below 
that line. The amendment was pressed by Southern 
friends of the late Mr. Calhoun, and made a test 
question. It was lost, and the bill passed by a two- 
third vote. The bill went to the House of Rep- 
resentatives, was readily passed, and promptly 
approved by the President. Thus was virtually ac- 
complished the abrogation of the Missouri Compro- 
mise line ; and the extension or non-extension of 
slavery was then made to form a foundation for 
future political parties. 



MILIvARD FlIvLMORE— 1850-1853. 

M1LI.ARD Fillmore, the thirteenth President, was 
born in New York, January 7, 1800. His great 
grandfather was born in New England nearly 200 
years ago. His own father removed to Western 
New York. He received very little education dur- 
ing his boyhood. He learned the occupation of a 
clothier in his youth, but when 19 he resolved to be- 
come a lawyer. His abilities, energy, and industry 
were equal to the undertaking. He was not quick, 
but prepared his cases with care and judgment. In 
1828 he was elected to the Legislature and was twice 
re-elected. In 1832 he went to Congress as an anti- 



200 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS 

Jackson man; where he served six years. In 1841 
he was Chairman of the Ways and Means Com- 
mittee, where he gained the reputation that led to 
his nomination as Vice-President. On the death of 
General Taylor he succeeded to the Presidency and 
was inaugurated July 9, 1850. He formed a new 
Cabinet, all Whigs. It included Daniel Webster, 
Secretary of State, who was succeeded in 1852 by 
Edward Everett, of Massachusetts. Thomas Corwin 
of Ohio was his Secretary of the Treasury. For 
Secretary of War he first had General Scott, who 
was shortly followed by Charles M. Conrad, of 
Louisiana; John J. Crittenden, of Kentucky, was 
Attorney-General. 

The year 1850 was prolific with disunion move- 
ments in the Southern States. The Senators who 
had joined with Calhoun in the address to the 
people, in 1849, united with their adherents in estab- 
lishing at Washington a newspaper entitled "The 
Southern Press," devoted to the agitation of the 
slavery question; to presenting the advantages of 
disunion, and the organization of a Confederacy of 
Southern States to be called the "United States 
South." Its constant aim was to influence the 
South against the North, and advocated concert of 
action by the States of the former section. It was 
aided in its efforts by newspapers published in the 
South, more especially in South Carolina and Mis- 
sissippi. The assembling of a Southern "Con- 
gress" was a turning point in the progress of dis- 
union. Georgia refused to join; and her weight as 
a great Southern State was sufficient to cause the 
failure of the scheme. 



MILLARD FILLMORE. 



201 



Although Congress had in 1790 and a^ain in 18^6 
declared the policy of the Government'to be ^ 



non- 




MII,I,ARD FTLI^MORK. 



interference with the States in respect to the matter 
of slavery withm the limits of the respective States, 



^02 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

the subject continued to be agitated. The subject 
first made its appearance in national politics in 1840, 
when James G. Birney was nominated by a party 
then formed favoring the abolition of slavery ; it 
had a slight following which was largely increased 
at the election of 1844, when the same party again 
put the same ticket in the field, and received 62,140 
votes. The efforts of the leaders of that faction 
were continued, and persisted in to such an extent, 
that when in 1848 it nominated a ticket, with Gerritt 
Smith for President, against the Democratic can- 
didate, Martin Van Buren, the former received 
296,232 votes. In the contest of 1852 the ticket 
had John P. Hale as its candidate for President, 
and polled 157,926 votes. This following was in- 
creased from time to time, until, uniting with a new 
party then formed, called the Republican party, 
which latter adopted a platform endorsing the views 
and sentiments of the abolitionists, the great and 
decisive battle for the principles involved was 
fought in the ensuing Presidential contest of 1856; 
when the candidate of the Republican party, John 
C. Fremont, supported by the entire abolition party, 
polled 1,341,812 votes. 

On February 25, 1850, there were presented in the 
House of Representatives two petitions from citizens 
of Pennsylvania and Delaware, setting forth that 
slavery violates the Divine law; is inconsistent with 
Republican principles; that its existence has brought 
evil upon the country; and that no Union can exist 
with States which tolerate that institution; and ask- 
ing that some plan be devised for the immediate, 
peaceful dissolution of the Union. The House re- 



204 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



fused to receive and consider the petitions; as did 
also the Senate when the same petitions were pre- 
sented the same month. 

Slavery was abolished in the District of Columbia 
on September 17, 1850. 

The election of 1852 was the last campaign in 
which the Whig party appeared in national politics. 
It nominated a ticket with Winfield Scott as its can- 
didate for President. His opponent on the Demo- 
cratic ticket was Franklin Pierce. A third ticket 
was placed in the field by the Abolition party, with 
John P. Hale as its candidate. The platform and 
declaration of principles of the Whig party were in 
substance an endorsement of the several measures 
embraced in Clay's compromise resolutions of the 
previous session of Congress, and the policy of a 
revenue for the economical administration of the 
Government, to be derived mainly from duties on 
imports, and by these means to afford protection to 
American industry. The main plank of the plat- 
form of the Abolition party (or Independent Demo- 
crats, as they were called) was for the non-extension 
and gradual extinction of slavery. The Democratic 
party equally adhered to the compromise measure. 
The election resulted in the choice of Franklin 
Pierce, by a popular vote of 1,601,474, and 254 elec- 
toral votes, against a popular aggregate vote of 
1,542,403 (of which the abolitionists polled 
157,926) and 42 electoral votes, for the Whig and 
abolition candidates. Pierce was duly inaugurated 
as President, March 4, 1853. 

A new law for the reclamation of fuofitive slaves 
was passed in 1850, containing substantially the same 



FRANKLIN PIERCE. 205 

provisions as the law of 1793. The law authorizing 
the removal of the slave to the State from which he 
escaped, might be tolerated; but when all citizens 
were "commanded to aid in the execution of the 
law," its enforcement was practically nullified. The 
abolitionist and the humanitarian placed the moral 
law above the legal enactment, and acted accord- 
ingly. It was confidently expected that the President 
would refuse to give the bill his sanction. It met 
with his approval. Fillmore lost whatever chance 
he had of the nomination by his party, by signing 
and seeking to enforce the Fugitive Slave Law. 
He retired from office March 4, 1853, and returned 
to Buffalo. He was nominated in 1856 by the 
American party, but received no electoral votes 
but those of Maryland. He died March 8, 1874, 
and was buried in Buffalo, N. Y. 



FRANKLIN PIERCE— 1853-1857. 

Franklin Pierce, our thirteenth President, was 
inaugurated March 4, 1853. He was born in New 
Hampshire, November 23, 1804. His father, General 
Benjamin Pierce, served throughout the Revolution- 
ary War in his youth, and half a century later was 
twice elected Governor of New Hampshire. Franklin 
graduated at Bowdoin College in 1824, studied law, 
was soon a successful practitioner, and was elected 
to the State Legislature. He was sent to Congress 
in 1833, and re-elected for a second term, when he 
was advanced to the Senate, being its youngest 



2o6 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

member. He volunteered as a private in the Mex- 
ican War, where he rose to the rank of brigadier- 
general. He joined the army under Scott, by whom 
he was praised for his gallantry and discretion. At 
the close of the war he returned to Concord, resumed 
the practice of law, declining all political honors 
until the Democratic convention met in 1852. It 
was found that the four great competitors, Cass, 
Buchanan, Marcy, and Douglas, could not gain the 
requisite number of votes; so the Virginia delegation 
brought forward the name of General Pierce, and he 
was nominated by acclamation, carrying in the elec- 
tion all the States except four, against his illustrious 
rival. General Scott. 

To his Cabinet he invited William L. Marcy as 
Secretary of State; James Guthrie of Kentucky was 
given the Treasury; Jefferson Davis of Mississippi 
was appointed War Secretary; and Caleb Cushing 
of Massachusetts was made Attorney-General. 

On February 8, 1853, ^ ^^^^ passed the House of 
Representatives providing a territorial government 
for Nebraska, embracing all of what is now Kansas 
and Nebraska. It was silent on the subject of the 
repeal of the Missouri Compromise. The bill was 
tabled in the Senate, to be revived at the following 
session. It was amended to prohibit "alien suf- 
frage." In the House this amendment was not agreed 
to, and the bill finally passed without it. 

So far as Nebraska was concerned, no excitement 
of any kind marked the initiation of her territorial 
existence. Kansas was less fortunate. Her terri- 
tory became at once the battle-field of a fierce polit- 
ical conflict between the advocates of slavery, and 



FRANKLIN PIERCE. 



207 



the free-soil men from the North who went there to 
resist the establishment of that institution in the 




FRANKIvIN PIERCE. 



Territory. Differences arose between the Legisla- 
ture and the Governor, brought about by antago- 



2o8 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

iiisms between the Pro-Slavery party and the Free 
State party; and the condition of affairs in Kansas 
assumed so frightful a mien in January, 1856, that 
the President sent a special Message to Congress on 
the subject; followed by a Proclamation, February 
II, 1856, "warning all unlawful combinations (in 
the Territory) to retire peaceably to their respective 
abodes, or he would use the power of the local militia 
and the available forces of the U. S. to disperse them. 
Applications were made for several successive years 
for the admission of Kansas as a State in the Union, 
upon the basis of three separate and distinct consti- 
tutions, all differing as to the main questions at issue 
between the contending factions. The name of 
Kansas was for some years synonymous with all that 
is lawless and anarchical. Flections became mere 
farces, and the officers thus fraudulently placed in 
power, used their authority only for their own or 
their party's interest. The party opposed to slavery 
at length triumphed; a constitution excludingslavery 
was adopted in 1859, and Kansas was admitted into 
the Union January 29, 1861. 

" The National party began preparations for a cam- 
paign in 1856. It aimed to introduce opposition to 
aliens and Roman Catholicism as a national question. 
On February 21, 1856, the National Council held a 
session at Philadelphia, and proceeded to formulate 
a declaration of principles. Among other things, it 
declared that ; Americans must rule America, and 
to this end, native-born citizens should be selected 
for all State, Federal, and municipal offices or Gov- 
ernment employment, in preference to all others. 
No person shall be selected for political station who 



FRANKLIN PIERCE. 



209 



recognizes any allegiance or obligation, of any de- 
scription, to any foreign prince, potentate, or power, 
or who refuses to recognize the Federal and State 
Constitutions as paramount to all other laws, as rules 
of political action. (This was a crack at the Pope.) 
A change in the laws of naturalization, making a 
continued residence of 21 years an indispensable 
requisite for citizenship hereafter, and excluding all 
paupers, and persons convicted of crime, from land- 
ing upon our shores, but no interference with the 
vested rights of foreigners. Opposition to any union 
between Church and State; no interference with 
religious faith, or worship, and no test oaths for 
office. 

The convention was composed of 227 delegates, 
all the States being represented except Maine, 
Vermont, Georgia, and South Carolina. Millard 
Fillmore was nominated for President, and Andrew 
J. Donelson for Vice-President. 

The Whig Convention endorsed the nominations 
made by the American party, and in its platform de- 
clared that " the Union is in peril, and our convic- 
tion is, that the restoration of Mr. Fillmore to the 
Presidency will furnish the best means of restoring 
peace. * ' 

The first National Convention of the new Repub- 
lican party met at Philadelphia, June 18, 1856, and 
nominated John C. Fremont for President, and Wil- 
liam ly. Dayton for Vice-President. The Republican 
party, still composed of uncertain elements, sought 
only for a candidate that was available. Seward or 
Chase was the natural candidate. Both were fully 
identified with the principles and purposes of their 
14 



2IO LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

party. Both were men of marked ability, strong in 
their respective States, each elected governor of his 
State and sure of its support; but Chase was opposed 
on account of his advanced opinions on the slavery 
question, and Seward was actively opposed by the 
so-called American party for his open hostility to its 
principles and policy. Thus it came to pass that 
public opinion gradually but strongly turned to John 
C. Fremont, who had no experience in public life, 
but who had attracted attention by his bold explora- 
tions in the West, and especially by his marching to 
California, and occupation of that Mexican territory. 

This convention met in pursuance of a call ad- 
dressed to the people of the United States, without 
regard to past political differences or divisions, who 
were opposed to the repeal of the Missouri Compro- 
mise; to the policy of President Pierce's Administra- 
tion; to the extension of slavery into free territory, 
and in favor of the admission of Kansas as a free 
State, and of restoring the action of the Federal 
Government to the principles of Washington and 
Jefferson. 

The Democrats of Pennsylvania nominated James 
Buchanan of Pennsylvania for President, and John 
C. Breckenridge of Kentucky for Vice-President ; 
Pierce being his chief competitor, receiving 122 
ballots on the first vote. Its platform declared (i) 
that the revenue to be raised should not exceed the 
actual necessary expenses of the Government, and 
for the gradual extinction of the public debt; (2) that 
the Constitution does not confer upon the general 
Government the power to commence and carry on a 
general system of internal improvements; (3) for a 




JOHN C. FREMONT. 

{Alajor- Genera I ijt the Union Army.) 



212 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



strict construction of the powers granted by the 
Constitution to the Federal Government; (4) that 
Congress has no power to charter a national bank ; 
(5) that Congress has no power to interfere with 
slavery in the States and Territories; the people of 
which have the exclusive right and power to settle 
that question for themselves. (6) Opposition to 
native Americanism. 

At the election which followed, the Democratic 
candidates were elected, though by a popular 
minority vote, having received 1,838,160 popular 
votes, and 174 electoral votes, against 2,215,768 
popular votes, and 122 electoral votes for John C. 
Fremont, the Republican candidate, and Millard 
Fillmore, the Whig and American candidate. 

Pierce's election was the last national contest in 
which the Whig party had an active share. It had 
never succeeded in breaking the power of its oppo- 
nent. Twice its candidate had been elected, but in 
both cases success was due to the personal popularity 
and military reputation of the candidates. Both 
died early, one in a month, and the other in a trifle 
over a year after inauguration. 

Franklin Pierce returned to private life, March 4, 
1857. His administration was made entirely sub- 
servient to the interests of slavery. Whatever repu- 
tation it may have won was wholly due to Governor 
Marcy, whose wise management of our foreign affairs 
ranked him among^ the grreat men of our times. In 
1863, Pierce made a speech at Concord against the 
Coercion of the Confederates. He died October 8, 
1869, and was buried at Concord, New Hampshire. 



/AMES BUCHANAN. 213 



JAMES BUCHANAN— 1857-1861. 

James Buchanan, our fourteenth President, was 
born in Pennsylvania, April 23, 1791, and next to 
Harrison he was the oldest of the Presidents at the 
time of his election. He was well educated, studied 
law, and was admitted to practice in 1812. He was 
elected to his State Legislature when he was 23 
years old. In 1822 he entered Congress, and con- 
tinued till 183 1, when he declined a re-election. 
Jackson sent him as Minister to Russia in 1832. On 
his return home in 1834 he was elected to the Senate, 
where he served till 1845, when he resigned his seat 
to become President Polk's Secretary of State. In 
1853 Pierce appointed him Minister to England, 
where he remained till 1856. He was one of the 
three American Ministers who signed the document 
known as the "Ostend Manifesto," advising our 
Government to seize Cuba by force if it could not 
be purchased from Spain. With England, France, 
and Spain against us, seizing Cuba was, of course, 
out of the question. On his return he was nomi- 
nated for the Presidency by the Democrats, and 
elected; was sworn into ofhce March 4, 1857, ^"^ 
served out the full term of four years. In early life 
he was classed with the Federalists, but abandoned 
them on account of their opposition to the War of 
18 1 2. He ever afterwards acted with the Democrats. 

Lewis Cass of Michigan was called to tlie State 
Department; Howell Cobb of Georgia was made 
Secretary of the Treasury; and John B. Floyd of 
Virginia was at the head of the War Department; 



214 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

Jeremiah S. Black of Pennsylvania was appointed 
Attorney-General; Jacob Thompson of Mississippi 
was made Secretary of the Interior, and served out 
his full term; Isaac Toucey of Connecticut was 
Secretary of the Navy. 

The advent of Mr. Buchanan was preceded by 
symptoms which looked like a general disruption of 
society, and he was hardly in a very hopeful mood 
when he delivered his inaugural. In that address, he 
stated that he had determined not to become a can- 
didate for re-election, and would have no motive to 
influence his conduct, except the desire to serve his 
country, and to live in the grateful memory of his 
countrymen. They had recently, he observed, 
passed through a Presidential contest in which the 
passions of their fellow-citizens had been excited in 
the highest degree by questions of deep and vital 
importance. Referring to the Kansas difficulty, he 
said: "Congress is neither to legislate slavery into 
any Territory or State, nor to exclude it therefrom; 
but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to. form 
and regulate their domestic institutions in their own 
way, subject only to the Constitution of the United 
States." Buchanan was not the man to condemn 
anything which favored the interests of the slave- 
holding States. 

At the very outset of his Presidency the slave 
question was once more before the law courts. A 
negro, named Dred Scott, claimed his freedom on 
the score of residing in a State from which slavery 
had been excluded by the Missouri Compromise. 
In delivering judgment, the Supreme Court declared 
that the Missouri Compromise exceeded the powers 



JAMES BUCHANAN. 215 

of Congress by its invasion of State rights and sov- 
ereignty; that men of African race were not citizens 




JAMES BUCHANAN. 

of the United States; that the residence of a slave 
in a free State did not aflfect his legal condition on 



3i6 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

returning to a State where slavery was allowed by 
law; and that the negro had no rights which the 
white man was bound to respect. It was also decided 
that the ordinance of 1787, so far as it prohibited 
slavery from the North-west Territory, was uncon- 
stitutional. Thus all legislation against the exten- 
sion of slavery, from the formation of the Constitution 
to that very year, was swept away at one blow. 
Such was the decision of the Democratic judges, 
who were in the majority; two other judges, who 
were Whigs, were in favor of the negro's claim. 
Great disappointment was felt at the North; but all 
such decisions helped forward the catastrophe by 
which slavery was blotted out forever. 

A convention to frame a Constitution for Kansas 
met at Lecompton. A large majority of its members 
were in favor of establishing slavery in Kansas. 
All the white male inhabitants of the Territory 
above the age of 21 were entitled to vote. They 
were to vote by ballots which were endorsed, " Con- 
stitution with Slavery," and "Constitution with no 
Slavery." If the Constitution with no Slavery 
were carried, it was expressly declared that no slav- 
ery should exist in the State, excepting to this ex- 
tent, that the right of property in slaves then in the 
Territory should not be interfered with. The 
exception was a serious one, because many slave- 
holders had gone therewith their human cattle; but 
such was the tenderness of the convention towards 
these men that they were permitted to take advan- 
tage of their own wrong. To Buchanan, this 
arrangement seemed fair and admirable. Referring 
to the negroes already in the Territory, he said: — 



JAMES BUCHANAN, 



217 



"The number of these is very small; but if it were 
greater, the provision would be equally just and 




A HOMESTEAD IN KANSAS- 



reasonable. These slaves were brought into the 
Territory under the Constitution of the U. S., and 



2t8 lives of the presidents. 

are now the property of their masters. This point 
has at length been finally decided by the highest 
judicial tribunal of the country, and this upon the 
plain principle that when a Confederacy of Sovereign 
States acquire a new Territory at their joint ex- 
pense, both equality and justice demand that the 
citizens of one and all of them shall have the right 
to take into it whatsoever is recognized as property 
by the common Constitution. To have summarily 
confiscated the property of slaves already in the 
Territory, would have been an act of gross injustice, 
and contrary to the practice of the older States of 
the Union which have abolished slavery." 

The Free State settlers refused to vote, and the 
Lecomption Constitutiou zvith Slavery received 6000 
majority. The President desired to admit Kansas 
under this Constitution. He was supported by all 
the Southern Congressmen; and opposed by the 
Republicans and the "Douglas" Democrats. The 
Senate passed a bill for the admission of Kansas. 
It went to the House, where a proviso was tacked on 
to the bill sending it back to the people of Kansas 
for a new vote on the Lecompton Constitution, where 
it was rejected by more than 10,000 majority. A 
new Convention met at W3'andot in July, 1859, 
where a Constitution was adopted prohibiting slav- 
ery. This was submitted to the people and received 
a majority in its favor of over 4000 votes. So Kan- 
sas was admitted into the Union as a Free State, 
January 29, 1861. 

The financial condition of the country, Buchanan 
described as without a parallel. The nation was 
positively embarrassed by too large a surplus. Not- 



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o 

o 
o 

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5^ 



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b 

CO 






■iW"'ll;'ii|;l'l'!,'l'';''f"i'i"l''ii'ilii)ll 



220 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

withstanding this, commercial panics created far- 
spread ruin in the fall of 1857. A condition of gen- 
eral prosperity had existed for years; and it was de- 
clared that this had led to overtrading, and a serious 
revulsion set in. According to the President the 
troubles proceeded from a vicious system of paper- 
currency and bank-credits exciting the people to 
wild speculations, and to gambling in stocks. In 
the midst of unsurpassed plenty in all the produc- 
tions of agriculture and all the elements of national 
wealth, manufactures were suspended, public works 
retarded, private enterprises abandoned, and thou- 
sands of laborers thrown out of employment. There 
were about 1400 State Banks, acting independently 
of each other, and regulating their paper issues 
almost exclusively by a regard to the present inter- 
ests of their stock-holders. 

No crisis was ever so unexpected, none ever 
culminated so rapidly, or proved so destructive. 
The commercial "suspensions" were wholly due to 
the breakdown of credit; the greater part were per- 
fectly solvent, and able to resume as soon as the 
effects of the panic were over. It is important to ob- 
serve that not only were the New York and Eastern 
banks perfectly solvent, but their notes were never 
mistrusted; and after the suspension of payments in 
specie, their notes continued to circulate at par. It 
was a run for deposits which shut up the banks; and 
a similar run would shut up any and every bank in 
existence. The crisis spread to England. The 
great London joint-stock banks and discount houses 
suspended; as did those in Hamburg; and the Bank 
of England, after increasing its discount rate from 



222 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



six to ten per cent., was forced to suspend specie 
payments. Then the tide turned. 

A menacing question was the condition of Utah. 
Brigham Young was by Federal appointment the 
Governor of the Territory and Superintendent of 

Indian Affairs ; 
he was at the 
same time head 
of the church 
called "the 
Latter-Day 
Saints," and 
professed t o 
govern its 
members and 
dispose of their 
property by di- 
rect inspiration 
and authority 
from God. His 
was 
abso- 
ute over both 
Church and 
State; and if he 
chose that his 
government 
should come 
into collision with the General Government, the 
members of the Mormon Church would yield im- 
plicit obedience to his will. The position looked 
threatening, and it was made more difficult by the 
enormous distance the Federal troops had to traverse, 




power 
therefore 



BRIGHAM YOUNG. 




"^w mw 



y,iiMAMh}mMk Miim 



224 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

and the rugged and inhospitable desert which lay 
between them and their enemy. The trouble was 
temporarily quieted by a compromise; but the Mor- 
mon difficulty yet remained for more effectual settle- 
ment in later years. The Pacific Railroad was at that 
time only talked about. 

In 1859 '^^ Atlantic cable was successfully laid 
across the ocean, and America and Europe were 
united by telegraph. The first message occupied but 
thirty-five minutes in its transmission. The cable 
had been hastily manufactured, and was not fitted 
to bear the strain to which it was subjected. In a 
little while the insulation of the wire became faulty 
and the power of transmitting intelligence ceased. 
[So that through the War of the Rebellion, from 
1 861 to 1865, we could communicate with Europe 
only in the old-fashioned way.] A new company 
was formed in i860. Various attempts were made, 
and, after repeated failures, the cable was finally laid 
in 1866; since which time it has been in successful 
operation between our shores and those of Great 
Britain. 

The Pacific Railway was another great project of 
this time. Buchanan, in 1858, observed, "twelve 
months ago a road to the Pacific was held by many 
wise men to be a visionary subject. They had argued 
that the immense distance to be overcome, and the 
intervening mountains and deserts, were obstacles 
that could never be surmounted. We have seen 
mail-coaches with passengers, passing and repassing 
twice a week, by a common wagon-road, between 
San Francisco and St. Louis and Memphis, in less 
than twenty-five days ;" and he urged that the Gov- 



isp? ^f ^ 



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2; 

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226 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

ernment should undertake the work as speedily as 
possible. Congress acknowledged the force of these 
words, and the Pacific Railway has been one of the 
greatest achievements of our genius, skill, and cap- 
ital. 

Before the end of Buchanan's Administration, and 
on the day that Sumter was fired upon by the Con- 
federate Government, and while England and France 
and the rest of Europe were watching what they 
looked upon as the distinct " dissolution of the great 
American Union," and facetiously styling us the 
"Un//^<^ States," the Representatives in Congress 
of ''free men, free speech, free press, free soil, and 
freedom," were voting the expenditures necessary 
to build the Pacific Railway, uniting the Atlantic to 
to the Pacific Ocean, and proclaiming one undivided 
Nation ! 

John Brown, a native of Connecticut, had been 
for many years the terror of slave-holders. He was 
an Abolitionist. To him slavery was a sin, and to 
tolerate it in any way, or for any period, was a crime. 
He belonged to the farmer class, simple in manners, 
truthful in nature, fanatical in his convictions, and 
beyond the influence of fear. In Kansas he fought 
the Pro-Slavery party with courage, and often de- 
feated them with loss. He had sons like himself, 
and two of these, who had settled in Kansas, were 
murdered by the " border ruffians." 

He resolved to attack Harper's Ferry, in Virginia, 
and make it the starting-point of his attempt to 
rouse the negroes of the Southern States. He col- 
lected a band of 20 white men, and seized the Fed- 
eral Armory at Harper's Ferry, where he was 




THS GREAT EASIBRN " PICKING UP TH« CABI.I5 IN MID-OCSAN. 



228 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

speedily joined by several hundred sympathizers. 
Arms were hastily despatched towards the South, 
and every inducement was held out to the negroes 
to engage in a general revolt. 

Next morning the townspeople attacked the arm- 
ory. Of course, Brown could not successfully repel 
any regular assault. He and his followers refused 
to surrender, but they were captured. Brown was 
wounded in several places in the final attack; his 
remaining two sons were slain; and others of his 
followers lay dead about the arsenal. 

He had acted according to an imperative sense of 
duty ; he had set his life upon a desperate cast, and, 
having failed, he was prepared to meet the conse- 
quences with that quiet courage which was a con- 
spicuous part of his nature. He was 59 years old, 
rather small-sized, with keen, restless, gray eyes, 
and a grizzly beard and hair; wiry, active, and de- 
termined. 

His conviction was a foregone conclusion, as the 
conviction of any man must be who is taken in the 
act of breaking the laws. He was warmly supported 
by the Northern Abolitionists; but more temperate 
politicians deplored the error he had committed, and 
saw there was no reasonable hope of his being spared. 
He was found guilty October 31, and was hung 
December 2, 1859. His companions were hung 
in March, i860. 

John Brown's attempt had failed. It was rash, 
hopeless, ill-advised, if we consider nothing but the 
immediate consequences; but it led to vast results 
in a future which was not distant. It made still 
more obvious the utter incompatibility of a Free 



m 

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'(.'■Si i' 




»lii" 



230 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



North and a Slave-holding South. It quickened 
throughout all the Northern States a passion of re- 
forming zeal. It roused the fears and armed the 
hands of Southern planters, and made them compre- 
hend that this 
dread ques- 
tion must be 
brought to an 
issue, fierce, 
agonizing, 
and conclu- 
sive. It caused 
both sides to 
understand 
their wishes 
and their will 
better than 
they had ever 
understood 
them before. 
It cleared 
away a mass 
of equivoca- 
tions, eva- 
sions, compro- 
mises, and in- 
sincerities. It 
placed the moral law above the constitutional, and 
called sternly and sharply on all men to choose their 
color, and to abide by it. The coming Presidential 
election was determined beforehand by that Vir- 
ginian execution: the victory of Abraham Lincoln 
dates from the defeat of Harper's Ferry. 




JOHN BROWN. 



JAMES BUCHANAN. 231 

The Democratic Couventiou met at Charleston, 
South Carolina, April 23, i860. Caleb dishing, from 
Massachusetts, presided. 

Three years earlier, the man most favored by the 
Democrats, as their probable candidate at the next 
Presidential election, was Senator Douglas, of Illi- 
nois, whose Kansas-Nebraska Bill was held to have 
given him great claims on the South. But he con- 
sidered that the slave-holders had gained enough, 
and he was unwilling to grant them anything more. 
He opposed Buchanan's zealous efforts to obtain the 
admission of Kansas to the Union as a slave State, 
and had thus earned the hatred of the extreme mem- 
bers of the Democratic party. 

It had been supposed by the Northern Democrats 
that the convention would adopt the Cincinnati 
platform, agreed to in 1856, by which the doctrine 
of popular sovereignty was distinctly affirmed; and 
that nothing more would be done than to repeat it. 
The majority of the convention voted against accept- 
ing the Cincinnati platform without alteration, but 
agreed to adopt it with the following resolutions: — 
"That the Democracy hold these cardinal principles 
on the subject of slavery in the Territories: That 
Congress has no power to abolish slavery in the 
Territories; that the Territorial Legislature has no 
power to abolish slavery in any Territory, nor to 
prohibit the introduction of slaves therein, nor any 
power to exclude slavery therefrom, nor any power 
to destroy or impair the right of property in slaves 
by any legislation whatever. That it is the duty of 
the Federal Government to protect, when necessary, 
the rights of persons or property on the high seas, 



232 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

in the Territories, or wherever else its constitutional 
jurisdiction enters." 

Before the balloting began, a reaffirmance of the 
two-thirds rule was resolved upon. It was well 
known that this resolution rendered the regular nomi- 
nation of Douglas impossible. 

The balloting began (Tuesday evening, May i), 
on the eighth day of the session. Necessary to a 
nomination, 202 votes. On the first ballot Mr. Doug- 
las received 145 >i^ votes; Mr. Hunter, of Virginia, 42; 
Mr. Guthrie, of Kentucky, 35 >^; Mr. Johnson, of 
Tennessee, 12; with some few scattering votes. 

The voting continued until May 3, during which 
there were 54 additional ballotings. Douglas never 
rose to more than 152^, and ended in 151 >^ votes. 

It became manifest that it was impossible to make 
a nomination at Charleston. The friends of Douglas 
adhered to him and would vote for him only, while 
his opponents, apprehending the effects of his prin- 
ciples should he be elected President, were equally 
determined to vote against his nomination. 

In the hope that some compromise might be 
effected, the convention, adjourned to meet at Balti- 
more on June 18, i860. 

At this convention Douglas received 173^^ votes; 
Guthrie 9; Breckenridge 6^. On the next and 
last ballot Douglas received 181^ votes, eight of 
those in the minority having changed their votes in 
his favor. 

He was accordingly declared to be the regular 
nominee of the Democratic party of the Union. 

Senator Fitzpatrick, of Alabama, was nominated 
as the candidate for Vice-President, but declined 



JAMES BUCHANAN. 233 

the nomination, and it was conferred on Herschel 




STEPHEN ARNOI.D DOUGI.AS. 



V. Johnson, of Georgia, by the Executive Com- 
mittee. Thus ended the Douglas Convention. 

Another convention assembled at Baltimore on 



234 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



June 23, styling itself the "National Democratic 
Convention." It was composed chiefly of the dele- 
gates who had withdrawn from the Donglas Con- 
vention, and the original delegates from Alabama 
and Louisiana. They abrogated the two-third rule, 
as had been done by the Douglas Convention. 
Both acted under the same necessity, because the 
preservation of this rule would have prevented a 
nomination by either. 

Mr. Cushing presided here also. 

The following names were presented to the con- 
vention for the nomination of President: John C. 
Breckenridge, of Kentucky, R. M. T. Hunter, of 
Virginia, Daniel S. Dickinson, of New York and 
Joseph Lane, of Oregon. 

Eventually all these names were withdrawn ex- 
cept that of John C. Breckenridge, and he received 
the nomination by a unanimous vote. The whole 
number of votes cast in his favor from twenty States 
was 103 >^. 

General Lane was nominated as the candidate 
for Vice-President. Thus terminated the Brecken- 
ridge Convention. 

The Republicans met at Chicago, May 16, i860. 
They were greatly encouraged by the large vote for 
Fremont and Dayton, and what had now become 
apparent as an irreconcilable division of the Democ- 
racy, encouraged them in the belief that they 
could elect their candidates. Those of the West 
were especially enthusiastic, and had contributed 
freely to the erection of an immense "Wigwam," 
capable of holding 10,000 people, at Chicago. All 
the Northern States were fully represented, and there 



JAMES BUCHANAN. 



235 



were delegations from Delaware, Maryland, Ken- 
tucky, Missouri and Virginia, with occasional dele- 
gates from 
other Slave 
States, there 
being none, 
however, 
from the Gulf 
States. David 
Wilmot was 
chairman. No 
differences 
were excited 
by the report 
of the com- 
m i 1 1 e e on 




platform, and 
the proceed- 
ings through- 
out were char- 
acterized by 
great harmo- 
ny, though 
there was a 
sharp contest 
for the nomi- 
nation. The 
prominent 
candidates 
were William 
H. Seward, of 
Illinois ; Salmon P. Chase, of Ohio ; Simon Cam- 
eron, of Pennsylvania, and Edward Bates, of Mis- 



JOHN C. BRECKENRIDGE. 

New York ; Abraham Lincoln, of 



236 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

souri. There were three ballots, Lincoln receiving 
in the last 354 out of 446 votes. Seward led the 
vote at the beginning, but he was strongly opposed 
by gentlemen in his own State as prominent as 
Horace Greeley, the editor of the New York Tribiuie^ 
the Republican organ of the country, and Thurlow 
Weed, the then political leader of New York State, 
and his nomination was thought to be inexpedient. 
Lincoln had been a candidate but a month or two 
before, while Seward's name had been everywhere 
canvassed, and where opposed in the Eastern and 
Middle States, it was mainly because of the belief 
that his views on slavery were too radical. He was 
more strongly favored by the Abolition branch of 
the party than any other candidate. When the 
news of his success was conveyed to Lincoln he 
read it in silence, and then announcing the re- 
sult said: "There is a little woman down at our 
house would like to hear this — I'll go down and 
tell her," and he started amid the shouts of personal 
admirers. Hannibal Hamlin, of Maine, was nomi- 
nated for Vice-President with much unanimity, and 
the Chicago Convention closed its work in a single 
day. 

A " Constitutional Union," or an American Con- 
vention, met on May 9. Twenty States were repre- 
sented, and John Bell of Tennessee, and Edward 
Everett of Massachusetts, were named for the Pres- 
idency and Vice-Presidency. Their friends, though 
known to be less in number than either those of 
Douglas, Lincoln or Breckenridge, yet made a vig- 
orous canvass in the hope that the election would be 
thrown into the House, and that there a compromise 



JAMES BUCHANAN. 237 

in the vote by States would naturally turn toward 
their candidates. The result of this greatest contest 
is given below. 

Lincoln received large majorities in nearly all of 
the free States, his popular vote being 1,866,452; 
electoral vote, 180. Douglas was next in the pop- 
ular estimate, receiving 1,375,157 votes, with but 12 
electors; Breckenridge had 847,953 votes, with ^^ 
electors; Bell, with 570,631 votes, had 39 electors. 

The principles involved in the controversy were 
briefly these: The Republican party asserted that 
slavery should not be extended to the Territories; 
that it could exist only by virtue of local and posi- 
tive law; that freedom was national; that slavery was 
sectional and morally wrong, and the nation should 
at least anticipate its gradual extinction. The Doug- 
las wing of the Democratic party adhered to the 
doctrine of popular sovereignty, and claimed that in 
its exercise in the Territories they were indiffer- 
ent whether slavery was voted up or down. The 
Breckenridge wing of the Democratic party asserted 
both the moral and legal right to hold slaves, and to 
carry them to the Territories, and that no power 
save the national Constitution could prohibit or in- 
terfere with it outside of State lines. The Americans 
supporting Bell adhered to their peculiar doctrines 
touching emigration and naturalization, but had 
abandoned, in most of the States, the secrecy and 
oaths of theKnow-Nothing order. They were evas- 
ive and non-committal on the slavery question. 

Secession, up to this time, had not been regarded 
as treasonable. As shown in earlier pages, it had 
been threatened in the Hartford Convention, by 



238 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



some of the people of New England who opposed 
the War of 1812. Some of the more extreme Abo- 
litionists had favored a division of the sections. 
The South, particularly the Gulf States, had encour- 
aged a secret organization, known as the " Order of 
the Lone Star," previous to and at the time of the 
annexation of Texas. One of its objects was to ac- 
quire Cuba, so as to extend slave territory. The Gulf 
States needed more slaves, and though the law made 
participancy in the slave trade piracy, many cargoes 
had been landed in parts of the Gulf without protest 
or prosecution, just prior to the election of i860. 
Calhoun had threatened, thirty years before, nullifi- 
cation, and before that again, secession in the event 
of the passage of the Public Land Bill. Jefferson 
and Madison had indicated that doctrine of State 
Rights on which secession was based in the Ken- 
tucky and Virginia resolutions of 1798, facts which 
were daily discussed by the people of the South 
during this most exciting of all Presidential cam- 
paigns. 

The leaders in the South anticipated defeat at the 
election, and many of them made preparations for 
the withdrawal of their States from the Union. 
Some of the more extreme anti-slavery men of the 
North, noting these preparations, for a time favored 
a plan of letting the South go in peace. South 
Carolina was the first to adopt a secession ordinance, 
and before it did so, Horace Greeley said in the New 
York Tribune: 

" If the Declaration of Independence justified the 
secession from the British Empire of three millions 
of colonists in 1776, we cannot see why it would not 



JAMES BUCHANAN. 239 

justify the secession of five millions of Southrons 
from the Federal Union in 1861." 

These views fell into disfavor in the North, and 
the period of indecision on either side ceased when 
Fort Sumter was fired upon. The Gulf States 
openly made their preparations as soon as the result 
of the Presidential election was known. 

South Carolina naturally led off" in the secession 
movement. Her Senators and Representatives re- 
signed from Congress early in November; her Ordi- 
nance of Secession was unanimously adopted 
on the 17th of November, i860. Governor Pickens 
issued a proclamation "announcing the repeal, De- 
cember 20, i860, by the good people of South 
Carolina," of the Ordinance of May 23, 1788, and 
*' the dissolution of the union between the State of 
South Carolina and other States under the name of 
the United States of America," and proclaiming to 
the world "that the State of South Carolina is, as 
she has a right to be, a separate, sovereign, free and 
independent State, and, as such, has a right to levy 
war, conclude peace, negotiate treaties, leagues, or 
covenants, and to do all acts whatsoever that right- 
fully appertain to a free and independent State. 

" Done in the eighty-fifth year of the sovereignty 
and independence of South Carolina." 

January 14, 1861, her Legislature declared that 
any attempt to reinforce Fort Sumter would be con- 
sidered an open act of hostility and a declaration of 
war. It approved the governor's action in firing on 
the Star of the West^ which had been sent by the 
Government to provision Fort Moultrie in Charles- 
ton harbor. 



240 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

The other Southern States quickly wheeled into 
line. Georgia passed her Ordinance of Secession 
on January 19, 1861, followed during the same 
month by Mississippi, Florida, Louisiana, and Ala- 
bama. In Arkansas, March 18, 1861, the first ordi- 
nance was defeated in the convention by a vote of 
39 against, 35 favoring; but on May 6, 1861, the 
Secession Ordinance was finally passed. Texas and 
North Carolina went out in February, 1861; Ten- 
nessee, June 24, 1861, passed by proclamation of the 
governor — the vote for separation being 104,019 
against 47,238. Virginia, on January 19, 186 1, 
passed a resolve that if all efforts to reconcile the differ- 
ences of the country fail, every consideration of honor 
and interest demands tliat Virginia shall unite her 
destinieswithhersister slave-holding States; also that 
no reconstruction of the Union can be permanent or 
satisfactory, which will not secure to each section 
self-protecting power against any invasion of the 
Federal Union upon the reserved rights of either. 
The Secession Ordinance was passed April 17, 1861. 
Kentucky passed it November 20, 1861. 

The Secession Ordinance passed in some of the 
States by the vote of their conventions, where they 
refused to submit the ordinance to a popular vote. 
In others, it was put to a general vote, manipulated 
by the leaders, and in all cases the vote was over- 
whelmingly in favor of the separation. In several 
States the governors ordered a repudiation by their 
citizens of all debts due to Northern men. 

In Maryland, the governor declined to accept the 
programme of Secession. iVddresses for and against 
were frequent. A convention was demanded by 



■nil 1 iiHjr.ln'lli 



V 



JEFFERSON DAVIS. 
,6 ^President of the Southern Confederacy.-) ^4 



242 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



those who declared that Maryland must go with 
Virginia. On April 21, 1861, Governor Hicks wrote 
to General Benjamin F. Butler, who was marching 
on to Washington with Massachusetts soldiers, at 
Lincoln's first call for 75,cx)o volunteers, advising 
that he do not land his troops at Annapolis. Butler 
replied that he intended to land there, and march 
thence to Washington. The governor protested 
against this, and also against his having taken forci- 
ble possession of the Annapolis Railroad. The 
House of Delegates voted against Secession, 53 to 
13; Senate unanimously. On May 10, the Delegates 
passed a series of resolutions protesting against the 
war, and imploring the President to make peace 
with the "Confederate" States; also, that "Mary- 
land desires the peaceful and immediate recognition 
of the independence of the Confederate States." And 
on May 13, both houses provided for a committee 
of eight members to visit the President of the United 
States and the President of the Southern Confed- 
eracy. The committee were instructed to convey 
the assurance that Maryland sympathizes with the 
Confederate States, and that the people are enlisted 
with their whole hearts on the side of reconciliation 
and peace. 

In Missouri, February 9, 1861, the Committee on 
Federal Relations reported that at present there is no 
adequate cause to impel Missouri to leave the Union; 
but that on the contrary she will labor for such an 
adjustment of existing troubles as will secure peace 
and the rights and equality of all the States. Res- 
olutions were passed instructing the Senators and 
Representatives to oppose the passage of all acts 



:-^ 7i?=^^W^r,-'r- -i 







A STREET IN NEW ORIyEANS ON AN KlvECTlON DAY. 



243 



244 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

granting supplies of men and money to coerce the 
seceding States into submission or subjugation; and 
that, should such acts be passed by Congress, their 
Senators be instructed, and their Representatives 
requested, to retire from the halls of Congress. 

A committee of seven was appointed to prepare 
an address to the people of the State of Missouri. 

November 26, Jefferson Davis transmitted to the 
"Confederate" Congress a message concerning the 
secession of Missouri. It was accompanied by a 
letter from Governor Jackson, and also by an act 
dissolving the union with the United States, and an 
act ratifying the Constitution of the Provisional Gov- 
ernment of the Confederate States; also, the conven- 
tion between the Commissioners of Missouri and the 
Commissioners of the Confederate States. Congress 
unanimously ratified the convention entered into be- 
tween R. M. T. Hunter for the rebel government 
and the Commissioners for Missouri. 

Several of these movements belong to the adminis- 
tration of President Lincoln; but we have thought 
it best to show the successive acts of the several 
States in their attitude towards separation, so that 
the entire movement can the more readily be com- 
prehended. 

The Southern Congress met on February 4, 1861. 
Howell Cobb of Georgia was elected President and 
announced that secession " is now a fixed and irrev- 
ocable fact, and the separation is perfect, complete 
and perpetual." At this Congress were delegates 
from South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, 
Florida and Mississippi. The Texas delegates were 
not appointed until February 14. A provisional 



JAMES BUCHANAN. ^545 

Constitution was adopted, being the Constitution of 
the United States, with some changes. Jefiferson 
Davis, of Mississippi, was chosen President, and 
Alexander H. Stephens, of Georgia, Vice-President. 
The laws and revenue oflBcers of the United States 
were continued in the Confederate States until 
changed. Executive departments and a Confederate 
regular army were organized, and provision was 
made for borrowing money on March 11, the per- 
manent Constitution was adopted by Congress, and 
the first Confederate Congress was held, sitting from 
February 18, 1861 to April 21, 1862. 

In the first Congress members chosen by rump 
State conventions, or by regiments in the Confed- 
erate service, sat for districts in Missouri and 
Kentucky, though these States had never seceded. 
There were thus thirteen States in all represented at 
the close of the first Congress; but as the area of the 
Confederacy narrowed before the advance of the 
Union armies, the vacancies in the second Congress 
became significantly more numerous. At its best the 
Confederate Senate numbered 26, and the House 106. 

For four months between the Presidential election 
and the inauguration of Lincoln those favoring 
secession in the South had practical control of their 
section, for while Buchanan hesitated as to his Con- 
stitutional powers, the more active partisans in his 
Cabinet were aiding their Southern friends in every 
practical way. 

The Confederate States was the name of the 
government formed in 1861 by the seven States 
which first seceded. Belligerent rights were ac- 
corded to it by the leading naval powers, but it was 



246 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

never recognized as a government, notwithstanding 
the persevering efforts of its agents at the principal 
courts. Lewis Cass resigned from the State Depart- 
ment, December 12, i860, because the President 
declined to reinforce the forts in Charleston Harbor. 
Howell Cobb, the Treasury, "because his duty to 
Georgia required it." 

John B. Floyd resigned as Secretary of War, be- 
cause the President declined " to withdraw the gar- 
rison from the harbor of Charleston altogether." Be- 
fore resis^ninof he took care to transfer all the muskets 
and rifles from the Northern armories to arsenals in 
the South. All of these arms, except those sent to the 
North Carolina Arsenal, were seized by the States of 
South Carolina, Alabama, Louisiana and Georgia, 
and were no longer in possession of the United States. 

January 8, 1861, Jacob Thompson resigned as 
Secretary of the interior, because "additional troops, 
he had heard, had been ordered to Charleston" in 
the Star of the West. 

The Mobile Advertiser said: " During the past 
year 135,430 muskets have been quietly transferred 
from the Northern Arsenal at Springfield to those 
in the Southern States. We are much obliged to 
Secretary Floyd for the foresight he has thus dis- 
played in disarming the North and equipping the 
South for this emergency. 

Buchanan, in his December Message, appealed to 
Congress to institute an amendment to the Constitu- 
tion recognizing the rights of the Southern States 
in regard to slavery in the Territories: 

" I have purposely confined my remarks to revo- 
lutionary resistance, because it has been claimed 




the; confederacy inaugurated. 



248 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

within the last few years that any State, whenever 
this shall be its sovereign will and pleasure, may 
secede from the Union in accordance with the 
Constitution, and without any violation of the con- 
stitutional rights of the other members of the Con- 
federacy. That as each became parties to the Union 
by the vote of its own people assembled in conven- 
tion, so any one of them may retire from the Union 
in a similar manner by the vote of such a conven- 
tion." * * * " I do not believe the Federal Gov- 
ernment has the power to coerce a State." 

Jefferson Davis publicly objected to the Message 
because of its earnest argument against secession, 
and the determination expressed to collect the 
revenue in the ports of South Carolina, by means 
of a naval force, and to defend the public property. 
From this moment the Southern Senators alienated 
themselves from the President; when he refused to 
withdraw Major Anderson from Fort Sumter, on the 
demand of the South Carolina Commissioners, the 
separation became complete. For more than two 
months before the close of the session all friendly 
intercourse between them and the President, whether 
of a political or social character, had ceased. 

Senator Crittenden brought forward a compromise 
proposition suggesting that amendments to the Con- 
stitution be made to ''avert the danger of separation." 
Memorials from the North and from New England 
poured in favoring his views. The President ex- 
erted all his influence in favor of these peace meas- 
ures. In his special Message to Congress, January 
8, 1861, after depicting the consequences which had 
already resulted to the country from the bare appre- 



JAMES BUCHANAN. 249 

hension of civil war aud the dissolution of the Union, 
he said: 

"Let the question be transferred from political 
assemblies to the ballot-box, and the people them- 
selves would speedily redress the serious grievances 
which the South have suffered. But, in heaven's 
name, let the trial be made before we plunge into 
armed conflict upon the mere assumption that there 
is no other alternative." 

This recommendation was totally disregarded. The 
refusal to pass the Crittenden or any other compro- 
mise heightened the excitement in the South, where 
many showed great reluctance to dividing the Union. 
Georgia, though one of the cotton States, under the 
influence of conservative men like Alexander H. 
Stephens, showed greater concern for the Union 
than any other, and it took all the influence of spirits 
like that of Robert Toombs to bring her to favor seces- 
sion. She was the most powerful of the cotton States 
and the richest, as she is to-day. December 22, i860, 
Toombs sent the following exciting telegraphic 
manifesto from Washington: 

^^Fellozv- Citizens of Georgia: I tell you upon the 
faith of a true man that all further looking to the 
North for security for your constitutional rights in 
the Union ought to be instantly abandoned. It is 
fraught with nothing but ruin to yourselves and your 
posterity. 

"Secession by the fourth of March next should 
be thundered from the ballot-box by the unanimous 
voice of Georgia on the second day of January next. 
Such a voice will be your best guarantee for liberty, 

SECURITY, TRANQUILLITY and GLORY." 



250 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

Toombs was the man who said: " In the event of 
a war, I will go to Boston and call the roll of my 
slaves from the foot of the Bunker Hill Monument." 

Buchanan's suggestions were distrusted by the 
Republicans, who stood firm in the conviction that 
when Lincoln took his seat, and the new Congress 
came in, they could pass measures calculated to re- 
store the property of, and protect the integrity of the 
Union. None of them believed in the right of seces- 
sion; all had lost faith in compromises, and all of 
this party repudiated the theory that Congress had 
no right to coerce a State. 

While the various propositions above given were 
under consideration, Lincoln was of course an inter- 
ested observer from his home in Illinois, where he 
awaited the legal time for taking his seat as Presi- 
dent. His views on the efforts at compromise were 
expressed as follows : 

" ' I will suffer death before I will consent or 
advise my friends to consent to any concession 
or compromise which looks like buying the 
privilege of taking possession of the Government 
to which we have a constitutional right; be- 
cause, whatever I might think of the merits of the 
various propositions before Congress, I should re- 
gard any concession in the face of menace as the de- 
struction of the Government itself, and a consent on 
all hands that our system shall be brought down to 
a level with the existing disorganized state of affairs 
in Mexico. But this thing will hereafter be, as it 
is now, in the hands of the people; and if they de- 
sire to call a convention to remove any grievances 
complained of, or to give new guarantees for the 



JAMES BUCHANAN. 551 

permanence of vested rights, it is not mine to 
oppose.' " 

With the close of Buchanan's Administration all 
eyes turned to Lincoln, and fears were entertained 
that the date fixed by law for the counting of the 
electoral vote, February 15, 1861, would inaugurate 
violence and bloodshed at the seat of government. 
It passed peaceably. Both Houses met at noon in 
the House, Vice-President Breckenridge and Speaker 
Pennington, both Democrats, sitting side by side, 
and the count was made without challenge or ques- 
tion. A noted author of the time, thus epitomized 
the situation : "The Democratic Convention of 1856 
nominated Buchanan for the Presidency as the cham- 
pion of slavery ; and his administration was conducted 
solely in the interests of that institution. If Bu- 
chanan had any generous sympathies for liberty, 
or aspirations for perpetuating the Republic, he 
gave no intimation of it in any of his public acts. 
He uttered no rebuke against the open declaration 
of secession, and his most trusted counsellors were 
the deepest plotters for the overthrow of the Union. 
Even while the fires of rebellion were being lighted, 
he plead impotency to quench them. And thus, 
with the mingled imputation of imbecility and 
treason, he retired from Washington, his retreating 
footsteps almost lit up by the torch of the incen- 
diaries who were setting fire to the Capitol. Future 
historians will turn to his record with amazement 
and horror. He slunk away from observation, the 
object of pity and contempt. Over his grave the 
tear of no patriot has ever fallen; least of all over it 
has been breathed a blessing, by any of the wor- 



252 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

shippers of the institution for which he prostituted 
his fame." 

After his retirement from office he resided at 
Wheatland, Pennsylvania, where he died June i, 
1868. An odd commentary on his life and opinions 
was evidenced in his leaving several thousands of 
dollars in Confederate bonds. 



ABRAHAM UNCOLN— 1861-1865. 

Abraham L<incoln, the sixteenth President, was 
born in Kentucky on February 12, 1809. Of his 
early years, he said himself in 1859: "My parents 
were both born in Virginia. My mother died in 
my tenth year. When I came of age I did not know 
much. I could read, write, and cipher to the rule 
of three, but that was all. The little advance I have 
now I picked up under the pressure of necessity. At 
21, I came to Illinois. I was raised to farm-work, 
which I continued till I was 22 years old. When 
the Black Hawk War came on, in 1832, I was elected 
a captain of volunteers. In 1833 I was sent to the 
Legislature, and re-elected for three succeeding 
terms. During my legislative period I studied law, 
and removed to Springfield to practise it. In 1846 
I was elected to the lower house of Congress. From 
1849 to 1854 I practised law. I was always a Whig 
in politics." 

In 1828 he made a trading voyage on a flatboat 
to New Orleans. Here the sight of slaves, chained 
and maltreated and flogged, was the origin of his 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



253 



deep convictions on the slavery question. In 1854 
he had the great debate with Douglas. From this 
he gained great popularity. He was proposed for the 




ABRAHAM I.INC0I.N'S EARI,Y HOME). 

Senate in 1855, but after several ballots lyyinan 
Trumbull was chosen. 

When Fremont was nominated for the Presidency, 



254 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS, 



Lincoln was put forward for the Vice-Presidency, 
receiving no votes; but the place went to William 
L. Dayton. In 1858 he ran against Douglas for the 
Senate and was beaten. In i860 the Republicans 
nominated him for the Presidency. He received the 
votes of every free State, while the votes of all the 
slave States were cast against him. He was unim- 
peachably elected, and on March 4, 1861, was inau- 
gurated in Washington, surrounded by soldiers under 
command of General Scott ; where he swore to 
"faithfully execute the office of President of the 
United States," and to the best of his ability, "pre- 
serve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the 
United States." In his address to Congress he said: 
^''Yw.your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, 
and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. 
The Government will not assail you. You can have 
no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. 
You have an oath registered in heaven to destroy 
the Government, while I shall have the most solemn 
one to 'preserve, protect, and defend it.' " 

To his Cabinet he called William H. Seward of 
New York as Secretary of State; Salmon P. Chase 
of Ohio to the Treasury; Simon Cameron of Penn- 
sylvania to the War Office, and Edward Bates of 
Missouri was made Attorney-General. These gen- 
tlemen had been his rivals before the convention. 
The most eminent of these men was Seward. He 
was then about 60 years old, and had been connected 
with political affairs for 36 years. His principles 
were those of the Republican party, and he lost the 
nomination because it was feared his attitude in the 
slavery struggles would be too violent. When the 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



255 



"impending conflict" had come, he weakened before 
the threatened danger of separation, and considered 




ABRAHAM WNCOIvN. 



that " the Constitution must be upheld at any cost." 
This lost him the support of the Abolition element 



2^6 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

in his party, who denounced him as a trimmer. He 
was a statesman of the world, and not disposed to 
risk his ends by rashness or scorn of compromise. 
His abilities and reputation marked him out for the 
chief post under the administration, and his name will 
always be closely associated with that of Lincoln. He 
expressed the view that "all troubles will be over 
in 90 days." Chase represented the more advanced 
anti-slavery element. Cameron, with a large busi- 
ness instinct, saw from the first that we were in for a 
prolonged war, in which the superior Northern re- 
sources and appliances would surely win. 

On March 5, 1861, came the Commissioners ap- 
pointed by the Confederate Government to open 
negotiations at Washington. Seward refused to rec- 
ognize them on the ground that the States were 
acting illegally and in defiance of the Constitution. 
The Commissioners left on April 11, after addressing 
an angry communication repeating the assertions 
with regard to the right of secession, and denying 
the possibility of the Government ever winning 
back the seceding States, or subduing them by force. 

Before Lincoln had entered office, most of the 
Southern forts, arsenals, docks, custom houses, etc., 
had been seized, and now that preparations were 
being made for active warfare by the Confederacy, 
many officers of the army and navy resigned or 
deserted, and joined it. The most notable was 
General Robert B. Lee, who for a time hesitated as 
to his "duty," but finally went with his State, Vir- 
ginia. All officers were permitted to go, the ad- 
ministration not seeking to restrain any, under the 
belief that, until some open act of war was com- 




17 



WIIfl/TAM H. SKWARD, 



257 



258 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



mitted, it ought to remain on the defensive. This 
was wise political policy, for it did more than all 
else to hold the Border States, the position of which 
Douglas understood fully as well as any statesman 
of that hour. 

He was asked, "What will be the result of the 
efforts of Jefferson Davis, and his associates, to di- 
vide the Union?" "Rising, and looking, like 
one inspired, Douglas replied, ' The cotton States are 
making an effort to draw in the border States to 
their schemes of secession, and I am but too fearful 
they will succeed. If they do succeed, there will be 
the most terrible civil war the world has ever seen, 
lasting for years. Virginia will become a charnel 
house, but the end will be the triumph of the Union 
cause. One of their first efforts will be to take pos- 
session of this Capitol to give them prestige abroad, 
but they will never succeed in taking it — the North 
will rise e7i masse to defend it; but Washington will 
become a city of hospitals — the churches will be 
used for the sick and wounded.' The friend to 
whom this was said inquired, 'What justification 
for all this ? ' Douglas replied, ' There is no justifica- 
tion, nor any pretence of any — if they remain in the 
Union, I will go as far as the Constitution will per- 
mit to maintain their just rights, and I do not doubt 
a majority of Congress would do the same. But if 
the Southern States attempt to secede from this 
Union, without further cause, I am in favor of their 
having just so many slaves, and just so much slave 
territory, as they can hold at the point of the 
bayonet, and no MORE.' " 

In the border States of Maryland, Virginia, North 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



259 



Carolina, Tennessee and Missouri there were sharp 
political contests between the friends of vSecession 
and of the Union. Ultimately the Unionists tri- 
umphed in Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri — in 




SAI.MON p. CHASE. 



the latter State by the active aid of U. S. troops — 
in Maryland and Kentucky by military orders to 
arrest any members of the Legislature conspiring to 
take their States out. In Tennessee, the Union 



26o LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

men, under the lead of Governor Andrew Johnson, 
made a gallant fight to keep the State in, and they 
had the sympathy of the majority of the people of 
Bast Tennessee. The leading Southerners encour- 
aged the timid and hesitating by saying the North 
would not make war; that the political divisions 
would be too great there. 

When the news flashed along the wires that Sum- 
ter had been fired upon, Lincoln immediately used 
his war powers and issued a call for 75,000 troops. 
All of the Northern Governors responded with 
promptness and enthusiasm. 

The Governor of Maryland issued a proclamation 
for the troops, stating that the four regiments would 
be detailed to serve withm the limits of Maryland or 
for the defence of the capital of the Ujiited States. 

The Governor of Virginia replied, that the militia 
of Virginia will not be furnished for any such use or 
purpose. You have chosen to inaugurate civil war; 
we will meet it in a spirit as determined as the ad- 
ministration has exhibited toward the South. 

The Governor of North Carolina replied, I 
can be no party to this wicked violation of the 
laws of the country, and to this war upon the liber- 
ties of a free people. You can get no troops from 
North Carolina. The Governor of Kentucky said, 
Kentucky will furnish no troops for the wicked 
purpose of subduing her sister Southern States. 

The Governor of Tennessee replied, Tennessee 
will not furnish a single man for coercion, but fifty 
thousand, if necessary, for the defence of our rights 
or those of our Southern brethren. 

From the Governor of Missouri came. Your requi- 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 261 

sition is illegal, unconstitutional, revolutionary, in- 
human, diabolical, and cannot be complied with. 

The Governor of Arkansas replied, None will be 
furnished. The demand is only adding insult to 
injury. 

The Southerners were more military than the 
Northerners; they were accustomed to the saddle 
and the use of firearms; the Northerners had to 
learn how to load and fire a gun after they joined 
the army. Several battles of little consequence 
were fought to secure control of Western Virginia. 
The Northern newspapers were clamoring for a for- 
ward movement. " On to Richmond," was the con- 
stant cry. On July 21, 186 1, was fought the Battle 
of Bull Run. It was a severe one and the losses on 
both sides were heavy. The Confederates, being 
reinforced at the right moment, routed the Union 
Army, which fled back to Washington. It was now 
realized that we had entered into a war in earnest, 
and on July 22, 1861, Congress authorized the en- 
listment of 500,000 men, for a period not exceeding 
three years. Other large requisitions for volunteers 
were subsequently made. We shall not attempt to 
relate the history of the battles for the Union. 

The last great battle was at Gettysburg, Pennsyl- 
vania, where General Lee was repulsed. He sur- 
rendered his army to General Grant on April 9, 1865. 
With the surrender of Lee, the last hope of Southern 
independence vanished. 

During all the war period the Union newspapers 
published accounts of all the movements of the 
armies; the Confederates were constantly supplied 
with information by secession sympathizers; attempts 



262 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



were made to release the Confederate prisoners of 
war; infected clothing was brought from Canada 
and sold in New York and elsewhere; attempts were 
made to burn the hotels in New York City. Oppo- 
sition was made to the draft there and a riot ensued. 
The fury of the mob was several days beyond con- 
trol, and troops had to be recalled from the front to 
suppress it. It was afterwards ascertained that Con- 




THE CONFEDERATE FI^AG. 



federate agents really organized the riot as a move- 
ment to " take the enemy in the rear." 

After this riot a more vigorous prosecution of the 
war was determined upon. 

The Confederates conscripted all white men, resi- 
dents of their States, between the ages of 17 and 
50 — as it was said, ^' everybody capable of bearing 
arms, from the cradle to the grave. ' ' Their newspa- 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 



263 



pers were not allowed to make any mention of the 
military movements. 

In March, 1862, Lincoln was impressed with the 
idea that great good would follow compensated 
emancipation in the Border States, and he suggested 
to Congress the passing of such a law. Various 
measures relating to compensated emancipation were 
considered in both Houses, but it was dropped in 
March, 1863. Before the idea of compensated eman- 
cipation had been dropped, and it was constantly 
discouraged by the Democrats and border statesmen, 
Lincoln had determined upon a more radical policy, 
and on September 22, 1862, issued his celebrated 
proclamation declaring that he would emancipate 
"all persons held as slaves within any State or 
designated part of a State, the people whereof shall 
be in rebellion against the United States " — by the 
first of January, 1863, if such sections were not "in 
good faith represented in Congress." He followed 
this by actual emancipation at the time stated. 

These proclamations were followed by many at- 
tempts on the part of the Democrats to declare them 
null and void; but all such were tabled. The House, 
on December 15, 1862, endorsed the first by a vote of 
78 to 51, almost a strict party vote. Two classed as 
Democrats voted for emancipation; seven classed as 
Republicans voted against it. 

On July 14, 1862, West Virginia was admitted 
into the Union. She had separated in the early 
years of the war from the mother State, which had 
seceded. 

The capture of New Orleans led to the enrolment 
of 60,000 citizens of Louisiana as citizens of the 



264 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

United States. The President thereupon appointed 
a Military Governor for the entire State, and this 
Governor ordered an election for members of Con- 
gress under the old State Constitution. This was 
held December 3, 1862, when Flanders and Hahn 
were returned, neither receiving 3,000 votes. They 
received certificates, presented them, and thus opened 
up a new and grave political question. The Demo- 
crats opposed their admission. The opposition at- 
tracted attention, because of the novelty of a question 
upon which, it has since been contended, would 
have turned a different plan of reconstructing the 
rebellious States if the 'President's plans had not 
been destroyed by his assassination. The vote stood 
92 for to 44 against, almost a strict party test, the 
Democrats voting no. 

On December 15, 1863, was passed the first Re- 
construction Act, authorizing the President to ap- 
point in each of the States declared in rebellion, a 
Provisional Governor; to be charged with the civil 
administration until a State government therein 
shall be recognized. 

The Presidential election of 1864 came round. The 
Republicans renominated President Lincoln unan- 
imously, save the vote of Missouri, which was cast 
for General Grant. Hannibal Hamlin was not re- 
nominated, because of a desire to give part of the 
ticket to the Union men of the Soiith, who pressed 
Andrew Johnson of Tennessee. There was some 
opposition to Lincoln's second nomination, which 
was dissipated by his homely remark that "it 
was bad policy to swap horses in crossing a stream." 
This emphasized the general belief 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



265 



The Democrats nominated General George B. 
McClellan of New Jersey for President, and George 
H. Pendleton of Ohio for Vice-President. General 
McClellan was made available for the Democratic 
nomination through certain political letters which 




GENERAIv GEORGE 



McCI.El.I,AN. 



he had written on points of difference between him- 
self and the Lincoln Administration. 

The Democratic platform carried this resolution, 
which sufficiently explains its attitude: 

Resolved^ That this convention does explicitly de- 
clare, as the sense of the American people, that after 



266 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

four years of failure to restore the Union by the 
experiment of war, during which, under the pretence 
of a military necessity of a war power higher than 
the Constitution, the Constitution itself has been 
disregarded in every part, and public liberty and 
private right alike trodden down, and the material 
prosperity of the country essentially impaired, jus- 
tice, humanity, liberty, and the public welfare de- 
mand that immediate efforts be made for a cessation 
of hostilities, with a view to an ultimate convention 
of all the States, or other peaceable means, to the 
end that, at the earliest practicable moment, peace 
may be restored on the basis of the Federal Union 
of all the States. 

Lincoln's views were well known; they were felt 
in the general conduct of the war. The campaign 
was exciting, and was watched by both armies with 
interest and anxiety. In this election, by virtue of 
an act of Congress, the soldiers in the field were 
permitted to vote, and a large majority of every 
branch of the service sustained the administration, 
though two years before, McClellan had been the 
idol of the Army of the Potomac. Lincoln and 
Johnson received 212 electoral votes, against 21 for 
McClellan and Pendleton. 

In President Lincoln's second inaugural address, 
delivered on March 4, 1865, he spoke the following 
words, since oft quoted as typical of the kindly dis- 
position of the man believed by his party to be 
the greatest President since Washington: "With 
malice toward none, with charity for all, with firm- 
ness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, 
let us strive on to finish the work we are in, 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



267 



to bind up the Nation's wounds, to care for him 
who shall have borne the battle, and for his 
widow and orphans — to do all which may achieve 
a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with 
all nations." 

April, 1865, was a month of triumph and of mourn- 
ing. In its earlier days, Richmond was occupied by 
the forces of the Union, and Lee surrendered to 
Grant. In its later days, Sherman achieved his 
final success, and the Confederacy, except in a few 
scattered members, lay dead before its foe. But 
between those two sets of events occurred a tragedy 
which had no parallel in American annals, which 
convulsed the nation with rage and grief For the 
first time in the records of the Republic, political 
assassination struck down the head of the Govern- 
ment, and sought with hasty and murderous hands 
to settle the great problems of the day. 

Lincoln had entered on his second term not more 
than six weeks when the bullet of an assassin closed 
his mortal career. He had nearly seen the end of 
the great contest for which his first election served 
as the pretext; but many difficulties yet remained to 
be overcome. The roughly-hewn, shaggy, uncouth 
face brightened every now and then with its pleasant 
and genial smile; but the lines were more deeply 
furrowed than they had been a few years before, and 
the shadows of vast responsibilities gave something 
of sublimity to features that were homely in them- 
selves. Rulers of men must occasionally appear 
among the people; and it was more for this reason 
than for personal entertainment that Mr. Lincoln, 
with his wife and a few attendants, visited Ford's 



^(S8 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

Theatre, at Washington, on the evening of April 14, 
1865. He had just returned from Richmond, and 
during the day had attended, together with General 
Grant, a meeting of the Cabinet, at which the new 
position of affairs had been discussed, and he had 
expressed himself with much kindness towards the 
South, and, looking forward to the speedy termina- 
tion of the war, hoped that the separated members 
of the great family would soon be united as of old. 
The occupants of the box were the President him- 
self, Mrs. Lincoln, Major Rathbone, and Miss Har- 
ris. General Grant was to have joined them in the 
course of the evening, but business detained him. 
At a quarter past ten, John Wilkes Booth, an actor, 
past along the box-lobby, and obtained entrance 
into the vestibule of the State box. He quietly 
closed the door behind him, and fastened it by brac- 
ing a short plank across from one of the side parti- 
tions to the other. Having thus secured himself 
from external interruption, he drew a small pistol, 
which he carried in his right hand, while his left 
held a long, double-edged dagger. These prepara- 
tions were not heard by the occupants of the box, 
who were at the moment intent on the action of the 
piece. The President was leaning forward, holding 
aside the curtain of the box with his left hand, and 
glancing round at the audience in the body of the 
house. Entirely unobserved by any one. Booth 
noiselessly approached his victim, and, resting his 
pistol on the chair, shot him through the back of the 
head. Lincoln swayed forward, and his eyes closed; 
but in other respects his attitude remained the same. 
He seems to have passed at once into a state of total 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



269 



unconsciousness. Major Rathbone, turning round 
at the report of the pistol, saw through the smoke a 
man standing between him and the President. He 
endeavored to seize him; but Booth, tearing him- 
self away, and dropping the pistol, struck at his 
antagonist with the dagger, and wounded him 
severely in the left arm. Exclaiming, "Sic semper 
tyrannis !" he leaped over the front of the box to 
the stage, but caught one of his spurs in the National 
Flag which hung immediately below where the 
President was sitting. This caused him to fall 
somewhat heavily, though only for a moment. On 
regaining his feet, he rushed towards the stage door, 
which his familiarity with theatres enabled him to 
find with facility, and escaped into the open air. 
He had provided himself with a horse, and on this 
he fled swiftly into I^ower Maryland. 

Consternation fell upon the audience at the sudden 
and atrocious deed. Surgeons were immediately 
sent for, and Lincoln was carried to a house close 
by. He still breathed, but had evidently no sense 
of what was passing around him. In this comatose 
state he lingered for several hours, but on the morn- 
ing of April 15, he breathed his last. About the 
same time that the murder of the President was 
being committed, an attempt was made to assassinate 
Secretary Seward. Owing to injuries received in a 
carriage accident, he was confined to his bed; and 
while lying there, a man named Payne, or Payne 
Powell, presented himself at the house, and re- 
quested admission on the plea of bringing medicine. 
He was refused, but, brushing past the servant, he 
darted upstairs to the third floor, and, with a pistol 



270 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS, 

which he carried, knocked down Seward's son, who 
endeavored to stop him, fractured his skull in two 
places, and otherwise severely injured him. He then 
entered the room, and stabbed the Secretary in the 
throat and face with a dagger, in the presence of 
one of his daughters. An invalid soldier, who was 
nursing the sick man, threw himself on the in- 
truder, but was seriously wounded in several places. 
Payne tore himself away the next moment, and, 
dashing downstairs, stabbed Major Seward (the 
eldest son of the Secretary) and an attendant. The 
entire incident had taken up only a few seconds; 
but it had fallen on the house like a tornado. Five 
wounded men were left behind him by the ruffian, 
who mounted his horse, and rode away without the 
least precipitation, fearing no immediate pursuit. 

In the agitation of the public mind consequent on 
these daring and extraordinary crimes, it was not 
unreasonably believed that a vast conspiracy had 
been planned by Southern politicians, to effect by 
murder what they could not accomplish by military 
force. 

From Maryland, Lincoln's assassin fled into Vir- 
ginia, where he was hunted down by a party of 
cavalry. He was accompanied by a man named 
Harold, who had been concerned in the plot, and 
the two being unable to go any farther, had taken 
refuge in a barn. The building being surrounded 
by soldiers, they were summoned to surrender. 
Harold surrendered; Booth refused. The barn was 
set on fire, and Booth was seen with a carbine 
threatening resistance to the last extremity. A sol- 
dier fired on him, and he fell mortally wounded. 



ANDRE W JOHNSON. 271 

A little before he expired, he said to those around 
him: ^'Tell mother I died for my country. I 
thought I did it for the best.'' Then, raising his 
hands, he exclaimed: *' Useless — useless!" As the 
passion of life grew calm before the great serenity 
of death, this man, ruined by a false, theatrical idea 
of patriotism, by inapplicable examples derived from 
Roman history, and by a tawdry sentimentalism, 
saw the miserable truth that he had destroyed his 
victim's life and his own without any good result 
whatever, even from his own point of view. There 
is no more pathetic cry than is contained in that 
reiterated word. 

The funeral of Abraham Lincoln was conducted 
with unexampled solemnity and magnificence. The 
coffin was carried on a huge catafalque, where it 
could be viewed by the multitudes in the various 
cities through which the funeral cortege passed, on 
its way from Washington to Oak Ridge Cemetery, 
near Springfield, Illinois, where he was buried May 
4, 1865. His remains were placed in an appropriate 
tomb on October 15, 1874. 



ANDREW JOHNSON— 1865-1869. 

Andrew Johnson, our seventeenth President, 
was inaugurated on the same morning that Lincoln 
died. No man thus called to administer a great 
Government could have satisfied his party; and he 
went through his term with little peace or success. 



272 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

He was born in North Carolina, December 29, 
1808. He was born in the obscurest poverty, and 
received no schooling. At ten he was apprenticed 
to a tailor. While a young man, he started for 
Tennessee with his widowed mother to find a home. 
Ambitious to better his condition, he became his 
own teacher. Marrying a girl of superior intelli- 
gence, she taught him to write and cipher. He 
dashed into local politics; he rose steadily, step by 
step, to the State Senate; then to Congress, where 
he remained ten years. He was twice elected Gov- 
ernor of Tennessee, and in 1857 was sent to the 
Senate. Thus his acquaintance with political life 
was not small, or wanting in variety. Like most 
self-made men, he was a little ostentatious in talking 
about his plebeian origin, and of what he owed to 
the people. But his conduct in the Senate showed 
him to be a man of sense and moderation. He car- 
ried through the Homestead Law, for which his 
name is gratefully remembered in many homes 
throughout the broad West. At the beginning of 
the war Lincoln appointed him the Military Gov- 
ernor of Tennessee, where he distinguished himself 
by vigor and resolution, and nerved the hunted 
friends of the Union. 

At the start of his Presidential career he seemed 
to range himself on the side of the most extreme 
Northern politicians, and against those who were in 
favor of adopting a more conciliatory policy towards 
the South — an impression which his subsequent con- 
duct entirely removed. He said the time had arrived 
when the American people should understand that 
treason was a crime. To the mass of the misled he 



ANDRE IV JOHNSON. ^^ ^ 

would say, ^' Mercy, clemency, reconciliation, and 
the restoration of local government;" but to the 




ANDREW JOHNSON. 



conscious, influential traitor, who had attempted to 
destroy the life of the nation, he would say: ''On 



274 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

you be inflicted the severest penalty of your crime. 
Mercy without justice would in itself be criminal.'' 
From evidence in the Bureau of Military Justice, 
he thought the assassination of Abraham Lincoln 
and the attempted assassination of Wm. H. Seward, 
had been procured by Jefferson Davis, Clement C. 
Clay, Jacob Thompson, and "other rebels and trai- 
tors harbored in Canada." The evidence, however, 
showed that the scheme was harebrained, and from 
no responsible political source. The proclamation, 
however, gave keenness to the search for the fugitive 
Davis, and he was captured while making his way 
through Georgia to the Florida coast, with the in- 
tention of escaping from the country. He was im- 
prisoned in Fortress Monroe, and an indictment for 
treason was found against him; but he remained a 
close prisoner for nearly two years, until times when 
political policies had been changed or modified. 
Horace Greeley was one of his bondsmen. By this 
time there was grave doubt whether he could be 
legally convicted, now that the charge of inciting 
Booth's crime had been tacitly abandoned. Webster 
(in his Bunker Hill oration) had only given clearer 
expression to the American doctrine, that, after a 
revolt has levied a regular army, and fought there- 
with a pitched battle, its champions, even though 
utterly defeated, cannot be tried and convicted as 
traitors. This may be an extreme statement; but a 
rebellion which has for years maintained great 
armies, levied taxes and conscriptions, negotiated 
loans, fought scores of sanguinary battles with alter- 
nate successes and reverses, and exchanged tens of 
thousands of prisoners of war, can hardly fail to 



ANDREW JOHNSON. 275 

have achieved thereby the position and the rights 
of a lawful belligerent. 

This view, as then presented by Greeley, was ac- 
cepted by the President, who from intemperate 
denunciation had become the friend of his old 
friends in the South. Greeley's view was not gen- 
erally accepted by the North, though most of the 
leading men of both parties hoped the responsibility 
of a trial would be avoided by the escape and flight 
of the prisoner. But he was confident by this time, 
and sought a trial. He was never tried, and the 
best reason for the fact is that no conviction was 
possible, except by packing a jury. 

On April 29, 1865, Johnson issued a proclamation 
removing all restrictions upon internal, domestic and 
coastwise and commercial intercourse in all Southern 
States east of the Mississippi; the blockade was re- 
moved May 22, and on May 29 a proclamation of 
amnesty was issued, with fourteen classes excepted 
therefrom, and the requirement of an "ironclad 
oath" from those accepting its provisions. Procla- 
mations rapidly followed in shaping the lately rebel- 
lious States to the conditions of peace and restoration 
to the Union. These States were required to hold 
conventions, repeal secession ordinances, accept the 
abolition of slavery, repudiate Southern war debts, 
provide for Congressional representation, and elect 
new State officers and legislatures. The several 
Constitutional amendments were, of course, to be 
ratified by a vote of the people. These conditions 
were eventually all complied with, some of the States 
being more tardy than others. 

While Johnson's policy did not materially check 



276 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



reconstruction, it encouraged Southern politicians 
to political effort, and with their tact they soon 
gained the ascendency in nearly every State. This 
excited the fears and jealousies of the North, and 
the Republicans announced as their object and plat- 
form, "that all the results of the war" should be 
secured before Southern reconstruction and repre- 
sentation in Congress should be completed. On this 
they were almost solidly united in Congress, but 
Horace Greeley trained an independent sentiment 
which favored complete amnesty to the South. 
Johnson sought to utilize this sentiment, and to 
divide the Republican party through his policy, 
which now looked to the same ends. 

In a speech at Washington, February 22, 1866, 
Johnson said: 

"The Government has stretched forth its strong 
arm, and with its physical power it has put down 
treason in the field. That is, the section of county 
that arrayed itself against the Government has been 
conquered by the force of the Government itself. 
Now, what have we said to those people? We said, 
No compromise; we can settle this question with 
the South in eight and forty hours. 

"I have said it again and again, and I repeat it 
now. Disband your armies, acknowledge the su- 
premacy of the Constitution of the United States, 
give obedience to the law, and the whole question 
is settled. 

" What has been done since? Their armies have 
been disbanded. They come now to meet us in a 
spirit of magnanimity and say. We were mistaken; 
we made the effort to carry out the doctrine of se- 



ANDRE W JOHNSON, 277 

cession and dissolve this Union, and having traced 
this thing to its logical and physical results, we 
now acknowledge the flag of our country, and 
promise obedience to the Constitution and the su- 
premacy of the law." 

It is not partisanship to say that Johnson's views 
underwent a change. He did not admit this in his 
speeches, but the fact was accepted in all sections, 
and the leaders of parties took position accordingly 
— nearly all of the Republicans against him, nearly 
all of the Democrats for him. So radical had this 
difference become that he vetoed nearly all of the 
political bills passed by the Republicans from 1866 
until the end of his administration, but such was 
the Republican preponderance in both Houses of 
Congress that they passed them over his head by the 
necessary two-thirds vote. He vetoed the several 
Freedmen's Bureau Bills, the Civil Rights Bill, 
that for the admission of Nebraska and Colorado, 
the Bill to permit Colored Suffrage in the District 
of Columbia, one of the Reconstruction Bills, and 
finally made a direct issue with the powers of Con- 
gress by his veto of the Civil Tenure Bill. 

General Butler charged the President with ''at- 
tempting to bring Congress into disgrace, ridicule, 
hatred, contempt, and reproach, and with delivering 
intemperate, inflammatory, and scandalous ha- 
rangues, accompanied by threats and bitter menaces 
against Congress and the laws of the United States." 
Assuredly nothing could be more reprehensible than 
the language employed by the President on many 
public occasions in characterizing Congress as a 
''rump" and charging in substance that they were 



278 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

not a Congress authorized to execute legislative 
power, but on the contrary, represented only part 
of the States. It was therefore resolved to impeach 
him. 

The events which led to the impeachment of 
President Johnson, may be briefly stated as follows: 
On February 21, 1868, the President issued an order 
to Mr. Stanton, removing him from office as Secre- 
tary of War, and another to General Lorenzo 
Thomas, appointing him Secretary of War ad 
interi7n^ directing the one to surrender and the 
other to receive, all the books, papers, and public 
property belonging to the War Department. 

Stanton refused to surrender his post, and ordered 
Thomas to proceed to the appartment which be- 
longed to him as Adjutant-General. This order was 
not obeyed, and so the two claimants to the Secre- 
taryship of War held their ground. A sort of legal 
by-play then ensued. But Stanton by the advice 
of the Senate stuck to the office. 

The House of Representatives resolved, that An- 
drew Johnson, President of the United States, be 
impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors. A 
committee from the House now appeared before the 
Senate saying: "In obedience to the order of the 
House of Representatives we have appeared before 
you, and in the name of the House of Representa- 
tives and of all the people of the United States, we 
do impeach Andrew Johnson, President of the 
United States, of high crimes and misdemeanors in 
office. And we further inform the Senate that the 
House of Representatives will in due time exhibit 
particular articles of impeachment against him, to 



ANDRE W JOHNSON. 



279 



make good the same; and in their name we demand 
that the Senate take due order for the appearance 
of the said Andrew Johnson to answer to the said 
impeachment." 




EDWIN M. STANTON. 



The impeachment trial began on March 30, 1866. 
There being 27 States represented, there were 54 
Senators, who constituted the court, presided over 
by Chief Justice Chase. Many of the speeches for 
and against the impeachment were distinguished by 



28o LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

great brilliancy and power. The vote resulted in 
35 for conviction and 19 for acquittal. The Consti- 
tution requiring a vote of two-thirds to convict, the 
President was therefore acquitted. And so the trial 
ended. 

The political differences between the President 
and the Republicans were not softened by the at- 
tempted impeachment, and singularly enough the 
failure of their effort did not weaken the Republi- 
cans as a party. They were so well united that 
those who disagreed with them passed, at least tem- 
porarily, from public life, some of the ablest, like 
Senators Trumbull and Fessenden, retiring perma- 
nently. The President pursued his policy, save 
where he was hedged by Congress, until the end, 
and retired to his native State after Grant was inau- 
gurated on March 4, 1869. He tried to get back to 
the Senate in 1870, but was defeated; he was, how- 
ever, elected in 1875, and took his seat in the extra 
session in March. Great expectations were built 
upon his return to the Senate, but he died ere the 
anticipations could be fulfilled, on July 31, 1875. 
He was buried at Greenville, Tennessee. 

In 1867, Secretary Seward obtained an important 
addition to our territory by the purchase of Russian 
America, in the extreme north-west of the continent, 
for $7,000,000. This is called Alaska; and is on 
the other side of Canada. Some dissatisfaction was 
found with the purchase, as being of little commer- 
cial value, with Canada separating the two sections; 
but Canada, by the irresistible force of events, is 
destined at no very distant day to voluntarily annex 
herself to the United States, to participate in the 



ANDRE W JOHNSON. 



281 



enormous advantage sure to accrue to her by such 
union. Then the entire northern continent is ours. 
While our war was progressing, Napoleon III of 
France, conceived the idea of establishing an empire 
in Mexico. 
An Austrian 

archduke, /^ ^x 

Maximilian, 
had been en- 
throned with 
French sol- 
diers to sup- 
port his occu- 
pation. This 
was an in- 
vasi on of 
our "Monroe 
Doctrine" 
principle ; 
but we could 
take but lit- 
tle notice of 
what was go- 
ing on out- 
side our own 
Union. At 
the end of 
1865 a pro- 
test was made. Napoleon withdrew his troops dur- 
ing 1866. Juarez, the President of the Republic 
of Mexico, compelled Maximilian to surrender, May 
15, 1867; he was condemned by a council of war, 
and shot on June 19, 1867; and this ended the short- 




SEYMOUR AND BLAIR. 



282 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

lived Mexican Empire. The fact that Napoleon 
withdrew his troops at the bidding of President 
Johnson, and that the empire thereupon tumbled 
into ruins, was certainly a great triumph of Ameri- 
can policy. 

The Republican Convention nominated with una- 
nimity. General Ulysses S. Grant, of Illinois, for 
President ; and Schuyler Colfax, of Indiana, for 
Vice-President. The Democratic Convention met 
in New York City, July 4, and after repeated ballots 
finally compromised on its presiding officer, notwith- 
standing repeated and apparently decided declara- 
tions on his part, that under no circumstances would 
he accept of the nomination. Governor Horatio Sey- 
mour, of New York, was nominated for President, 
and Francis P. Blair, Jr., of Missouri, for Vice-Pres- 
ident. 

George H. Pendleton, of Ohio, who advocated 
the payment of the U. S. bonds in "greenbacks," 
was unquestionably the choice of the convention; 
but as it was managed by August Belmont (the rep- 
resentative here of the Rothschilds, who held large 
amounts of our bonds, and demanded their payment 
principal aiid interest^ in gold), the choice of the 
delegates was overruled, and the convention so 
manipulated that Horatio Seymour was forced upon 
the party as the nominee. Pendleton received 145 
votes at the start, which dwindled down to 56 on 
the eighteenth ballot. On the twenty-second ballot 
Seymour received the full 317 votes. General W. 
S. Hancock received 30 votes on the first ballot, 
which increased to 144 on the eighteenth, and was 
135 on the twenty- first ballot; but this was a purely 



ULYSSES S. GRANT. 283 

complimentary vote to keep the convention together 
while the Seymour arrangements were being con- 
summated. The Greenback sentiment was scotched 
but not killed, and came up again, as will hereafter 
be seen. 

An active canvass followed, in which the brief 
expression — " IvCt us have peace " — in Grant's letter 
of acceptance, was liberally employed by Repub- 
lican journals and orators to tone down what were 
regarded as rapidly growing race and sectional dif- 
ferences, and with such effect that Grant carried all 
of the States save eight, receiving an elector il vote 
of 214 against 80. 



ULYSSES S. GRANT— 1869-1877. 

Ulysses Simpson Grant, the eighteenth Presi- 
dent, was descended from Scotch ancestors, and born 
in Ohio, December 27, 1822, and was the youngest 
elected President. His parents were natives of Penn- 
sylvania. Having acquired the rudiments of educa- 
tion at a common school, and having a taste for 
military life, he was sent to West- Point in 1839. 
He was a diligent student, but not bright, and grad- 
uated in 1843, standing twenty-first in a class of 
thirty-nine. He was made a brevet-lieutenant of 
infantry, and attached to the Fourth Regiment, his 
regiment being ordered to Texas, to join the army 
of General Taylor. Our young lieutenant fought his 
first battle at Palo Alto. He was also in the battles 



284 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

at Resaca, Monterey, and at the siege of Vera Cruz. 
At Molina del Rey, he was appointed on the field a 
first lieutenant for his gallantry; and for his conduct 
at Chapultepec he was breveted a captain. In 1854 
he resigned, and attempted various kinds of business 
without success. In 1848 he married. On the first 
call for troops to suppress the Rebellion, he marched 
in command of a company of volunteers to Spring- 
field. He was appointed a colonel in June, and be- 
came a brigadier-general in August, 1861. He rose 
to Lieutenant-General in March, 1864, when he had 
command of all the armies of the Republic, which 
then numbered nearly 750,000 men. In this new 
position his unrivalled generalship was fully dis- 
played. Having brought the war to an end, he was 
promoted to the rank of General — specially created 
— and took his proper station by the side of the great 
"Captains of the World." He was triumphantly 
elected to the Presidency in 1868; inaugurated 
March 4, 1869; and re-elected four years later. 

His first battle in the Rebellion was fought at 
Belmont, Missouri, on November 7, 1861. Both sides 
claimed the victory. In February, 1862, he took 
Fort Henry, and a week later Fort Donelson, which . 
was garrisoned with 20,000 men. It was here that 
he used his celebrated sentence, "No terms other 
than unconditional, immediate surrender can be ac- 
cepted. I propose to move immediately upon your 
works." The fort surrendered, and Grant was at 
once made a Major-General. He was now styled 
" Unconditional Surrender Grant." On July 4, 
1863, Vicksburg was captured, causing great exulta- 
tion among the friends of the Union. He was 



ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



285 



rewarded for this service by promotion to the rank 
of Major-General in the Regular Army. Captain 




UI.YSSES S. GRANT. 



Porter and the gunboats co-operated in this capture. 
Up to this time Grant had taken 90,000 prisoners- 



286 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

while disaster seemed to follow all the commanders 
operating against Richmond. On March 12, 1864, 
he was appointed commander of all the armies. He 
himself directed the army in Virginia, battling with 
Robert E. Lee; and sent William T. Sherman to 
oppose the other Confederate army operating in 
Georgia, and commanded by Joseph K. Johnston. 
Philip H. Sheridan commanded all of the cavalry 
in Grant's Army of the Potomac. Lee and Johnston 
were trained West Point soldiers; able, alert, and 
indefatigable. On May 5, 1864, Grant's army met 
the enemy in the great but indecisive battle of the 
Wilderness. On June 3, he attacked the enemy's 
works at Cold Harbor, but was repulsed with heavy 
loss. He remained nearly inactive before Peters- 
burg during the winter of 1 864-1865; but Sherman 
continued moving up from Georgia to Virginia. It 
had now got to be, as was expressed by the Demo- 
cratic press, " a mere question of bloody arithmetic." 
Lee was surrounded; his army were starving; it was 
criminal to pursue the contest any longer. Richmond 
was evacuated April 2, and on the ninth of April, 
1865, Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House, 
Virginia ; after which the insurgents everywhere 
gave up the contest. On his election to the Presi- 
dency he resigned his supreme rank to General 
Sherman. 

The war debt at the end of 1865 was three billions 
of dollars — to say nothing of the frightful loss of 
life. Such was the enormous cost which the slave- 
holders' rebellion imposed upon the land; but the 
end has been attained, and the people had sufficient 
confidence in the elasticitv of our resources to bear 



UL YSSES S. GRANT. 



287 



with cheerfulness this burden, which a few years had 
accumulated, on their shoulders. 

Grant was inaugurated, and the Congressional 
plan of reconstruction was rapidly pushed, with at 
first very little opposition save that manifested by 
the Democrats in Congress. The conditions of re- 
admission were the ratification of the thirteenth and 
fourteenth constitutional amendments. 

On February 25, 1869, the fifteenth amendment 
was added to the list by its adoption in Congress and 
submission to the States. It conferred the right of 
suffrage on all citizens, without distinction of " race, 
color or previous condition of servitude." By March 
30, 1870, it was ratified by twenty-nine States, the 
required three-fourths of all in the Union. The 
issue was shrewdly handled, and in most instances 
met Legislatures ready to receive it. Many of the 
Southern States were specially interested in its pas- 
sage, since a denial of suffrage would abridge their 
representation in Congress. This was, of course, 
true of all the States; but its force was indisputable 
in sections containing large colored populations. 

The 41st Congress met December 4, 1869, and 
before its close Virginia, Georgia, Texas, and Mis- 
sissippi had all complied with the conditions of 
reconstruction, and were re-admitted to the Union. 
This practically completed the work of reconstruc- 
tion. 

Grant's Cabinet rather surprised the politicians, 
it being more personal than partisan. A. T. Stewart, 
a New York City dry-goods merchant, was nominated 
for Secretary of the Treasury. He was one of the 
largest importers of foreign goods in the country, 



288 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

and as such ineligible to the office, and his confirma- 
tion was therefore refused by the Senate. Grant 
appealed to his friends to see if a little thing like 
the Constitution could not somehow be set aside, 
and his wishes in the matter gratified. On being 
assured of its impracticability, he nominated George 
B. Boutwell, of Massachusetts, who was confirmed. 
Elihu B. Washburne, of Illinois, was made Secre- 
tary of State. He had been the President's influen- 
tial sponsor at the beginning of the '' unpleasantness," 
and his constant friend throughout the war. John 
A. Rawlins, his old chief of staff, was placed at the 
head of the War Department. Adolph E. Borie, of 
Pennsylvania, was given the Navy portfolio; Borie 
was a member of the Philadelphia Union League 
Club; had contributed liberally to the campaign fund, 
and was the close friend of George William Childs, 
at whose suggestion he was appointed. The press 
of the country assailed him and Grant so rancorously 
that he retired within three months, when George 
M. Robeson, of New Jersey, assumed the office. 
Grant was accused of the grossest nepotism in his 
appointments. He certainly did not act on any 
principle of " public office being a public trust.'' 

Congress met December 5, 1870. With all of the 
States represented, reconstruction being complete, 
the body was now divided politically as follows : 
Senate, 61 Republicans, 13 Democrats; House, 172 
Republicans, 71 Democrats. President Grant's Mes- 
sage discussed a new question, and advocated the 
annexation of San Domingo to the United States. 
A treaty had been negotiated between President 
Grant and the President of the Republic of San 



ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



289 



Domingo, September 4, 1869, but it was rejected by 
the Senate. The question had no political signifi- 
cance. No territory could be annexed without a 
treaty, and this must be ratified by two-thirds of 
the Senate ; and as this could not be commanded, 
the project was dropped. It has not since attracted 
any attention. 

The long-disputed Alabama Claims of the United 
States against Great Britain, arising from the depre- 
dations of the Anglo-rebel privateers, built and fitted 
out and manned in British waters, were referred by 
the Treaty of Washington, dated May 8, 1871, to 
arbitrators, and this was the first and most signal 
triumph of the plan of arbitration, so far as the 
United States was concerned. The arbitrators were 
appointed, at the invitation of the Governments of 
Great Britain and the United States, from these 
powers, and from Brazil, Italy, and Switzerland. 
On September 14, 1872, they gave to the United 
States gross damages to the amount of $15,500,000. 

The Civil Service Reform Bill was passed at this 
session. When first proposed, partisan politics had 
no part or place in civil service reform, and the 
author of the plan was himself a distinguished Re- 
publican. In fact, both parties thought something 
good had been reached, and there was practically no 
resistance at first to a trial. 

Efforts were made to pass bills to remove the po- 
litical disabilities of former Southern rebels. All 
such efforts were defeated by the Republicans. The 
Amnesty Bill, however, was passed May 22, 1872, 
after an agreement to exclude from its provisions all 
who held the higher military and civic positions 
19 



290 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



under the Confederacy — in all about 350 persons. 
Subsequently acts removing the disabilities of all 
save Jefferson Davis were passed. 

An issue raised in Missouri gave rise to the Liberal 
Republican party. In 1870 the Republican party, 
then in control of the Legislature of Missouri, split 
into two parts on the question of the removal of the 
disqualifications imposed upon rebels by the State 
Constitution during the war. Those favoring the 
removal of disabilities were headed by B. Gratz 
Brown and Carl Schurz, and they called themselves 
Liberal Republicans; those opposed were called and 
accepted the name of Radical Republicans. The 
former quickly allied themselves with the Demo- 
crats, and thus carried the State, though Grant's 
administration backed the Radicals with all the 
power of the Government. As a result the disabilities 
were removed, and the Liberals sought to promote 
a reaction in Republican sentiment all over the 
country. Greeley was the recognized head of this 
movement, and he was ably aided by leading Re- 
publicans in nearly all of the States, who at once 
began to lay plans to carry the next Presidential 
election. 

They charged that the Enforcement Acts of Con- 
gress were designed more for the political advance- 
ment of Grant's adherents than for the benefit of the 
country; that instead of suppressing they were cal- 
culated to promote a war of races in the South; that 
Grant was seeking the establishment of a military 
despotism, etc. These leaders were all brilliant men. 

In the spring of 1871 the Liberal Republicans 
and Democrats of Ohio prepared for a fusion, and 



ULYSSES S, GRANT. 



291 



after frequent consultations of the various leaders 
with Mr. Greeley, a call was issued from Missouri 
on January 24, 1872, for a Convention of the I^iberal 




HORACE GREEI.EY. 



Republican party to be held at Cincinnati, May i. 
The well-matured plans of the leaders were carried 
out in the nomination of Horace Greeley, of New 



292 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

York, the editor of the New York Tribune^ for Presi- 
dent, and B. Gratz Brown, of Missouri, for Vice- 
President, though not without a serious struggle 
over the chief nomination, which was warmly con- 
tested by the friends of Charles Francis Adams. 

The original leaders now prepared to capture the 
Democratic Convention. By nearly a unanimous 
vote it was induced to endorse the Cincinnati platform, 
and it likewise finally endorsed Greeley and Brown 
— though not without many bitter protests. A few 
straight-out Democrats met later and nominated 
Charles O'Conor, of New York, for President, and 
John Quincy Adams, of Massachusetts, for Vice- 
President, and these were kept in the race to the 
end, receiving a popular vote of about 30,000. 

The regular Republican Convention renominated 
President Grant unanimously, and Henry Wilson, 
of Massachusetts, for Vice-President. This change 
to Wilson was to favor the solid Republican States 
of New England, and to prevent both candidates 
coming from the West. 

Grant and Wilson received nearly 3,600,000 popu- 
lar votes, while Greeley and Brown polled 2,835,000 
votes. Grant and Wilson receiving 286 electoral 
votes to 47 only for Greeley and Brown, they were 
declared elected and duly inaugurated, March 4, 
1873. Horace Greeley died soon afterwards in an 
insane asylum. The Tribune., the national organ of 
the Republicans for 30 years, lost caste, and this, 
and the defeat for the Presidency, unbalanced poor 
Greeley's mind. 

At the session of Congress, on December 2, 1872, 
the speaker (Blaine) on the first day called attention 



ULVSSES S. GRANT. 



293 



to the charges made by Democratic orators and 
newspapers during the campaign just closed, that 
the Vice-President (Colfax), the Vice-President elect 
(Wilson), the Secretary of the Treasury, several 




CHARlvBS O'CONOR. 



Senators, the Speaker of the House, and a large 
number of Representatives had been bribed, during 
the years 1867 and 1868, by Oakes Ames, a member 
of the House from Massachusetts; that he and his 
agents had given them presents of stock in a corpora- 



294 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

tiou known as the Credit Mobilier, to influence their 
legislative action for the benefit of the Union Pacific 
Railroad Company. 

The company called the "Credit Mobilier of 
America" was incorporated in 1864, and its charter 
was obtained by persons interested in the Union 
Pacific Railroad Company, for the purpose of using it 
as a construction company to build that road. 

A contract was executed between the Railroad 
Company and Oakes Ames, by which Ames con- 
tracted to build 667 miles of the road at prices 
amounting in the aggregate to $47,000,000. Before 
the contract was entered into it was understood that 
Ames was to transfer it to seven trustees, who were 
to execute it, and the profits of the contract were to 
be divided anion o- the stockholders in the Credit 
Mobilier Company. 

All the large stockholders in the Union Pacific 
were also stockholders in the Credit Mobilier, and it 
was expected that by reason of the enormous prices 
agreed to be paid for the work very large profits 
would be derived from building the road, and very 
soon the stock of the Credit Mobilier was understood 
to be worth much more than its par value. The 
stock was not in the market and had no fixed 
market value, but the holders of it, in December, 
1867, considered it worth at least double the par 
value, and in January and February, 1868, three or 
or four times the par value, but these facts \vere not 
generally or publicly known, and that the holders 
of the stock desired they should not be. 

Oakes Ames was then a member of the House and 
came to Washington in December, 1867. During 



ULYSSES S. GRANT. 295 

that mouth he entered into contracts with a con- 
siderable number of members of Congress, both 
Senators and Representatives, to let them have 
shares of stock in the Credit Mobilier Company at 
par, with interest thereon from the first day of the 
previous July. 

In some instances members who contracted for 
stock paid to Ames the money for the price of the 
stock, par and interest; in others, where they had 
not the money, Ames agreed to carry the stock for 
them until they could get the money or it should be 
met by the dividends. 

The purpose was clearly avowed in Ames' letters. 
He said he intended to place the stock "where it will 
do most good to us." And again, "We want more 
friends in this Congress." In a letter he gives the 
philosophy of this action, " That he has found there 
is no difficulty in getting men to look after their 
own property." Ames entertained a fear that, when 
the true relations between the Credit Mobilier Com- 
pany and the Union Pacific became generally known, 
and the means by which the great profits expected 
to be made were fully understood, there was danger 
that congressional investigation and action would be 
invoked, and he was preparing to head this off 

An Investigating Committee brought forward the 
expected "whitewashing" report. Henry L. Dawes, 
G. W. Schofield, John A. Bingham, William D. Kel- 
ley, James A. Garfield, and others, all Republicans, 
had had dealino^s in the stock, but were exonerated 
from any criminal intent. Oakes Ames was ex- 
pelled from his seat as a member of the House be- 
cause he sold to several members of Congress stock 



296 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

of the Credit Mobilier Company, at par, when it was 
worth double that amount or more, with the purpose 
and intent thereby to influence their votes and 
decisions upon matters to come before Congress. 

James Brooks, of New York, was the only Demo- 
crat who was let in, or who forced himself in, and 
he was also expelled from his seat as a Representative 
in the House. 

At the 1871-73 session, acts were passed to abolish 
the franking privilege, to increase the President's 
salary from $25,000 to $50,000, and that of Senators 
and Representatives from $5,000 to $7,500. The 
last proved quite unpopular, and was generally de- 
nounced as "The Salary Grab," because of the 
feature which made it apply to the Congressmen 
who passed the bill, and of course to go backward to 
the beginning of the term. This was not new, as 
earlier precedents were found to excuse it, but the 
people were nevertheless dissatisfied, and it was 
made an issue by both parties in the nomination 
and election of Representatives. Many were de- 
feated, but probably more survived the issue, and 
are still enjoying public life. Yet the agitation was 
kept up until the obnoxious feature of the bill and 
the congressional increase of salary were repealed, 
leaving it as now at the rate of $5,000 a year and 
mileage. The " Salary Grab " took over one mil- 
lion dollars out of the Treasury. 

In 1867 there was formed a secret society, called 
the Patrons of Husbandry, or as they were more 
commonly styled *' Grangers." They grew to be 
a power in Illinois, Wisconsin and other States in 
187 1. They succeeded in getting laws passed 



ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



297 



through their State I^egislatures which nearly crip- 
pled the railroads. The motive was to prevent the 
unjust discriminations in freight charges; but the 
laws operated disastrously and were repealed in 1873. 

The same spirit subsequently led to many peti- 
tions to Congress for the regulation of inter-state 
commerce and freight-rates. Their views were em- 
bodied in laws to which reference will hereafter be 
made. 

Senator Sumner's Supplementary Civil Rights Bill 
was passed in 1875. It held that all persons within 
the jurisdiction of the United States shall be entitled 
to the full and equal enjoyment of the accommoda- 
tions, advantages, facilities and privileges of inns, 
public conveyances on land or water, theatres and 
other places of public amusement, subject only to 
the conditions and limitations established by law, 
and applicable alike to citizens of every race and 
color, and make it a criminal offence to violate 
these enactments by denying to any citizen, except 
for reasons by law applicable to citizens of every 
race and color, * * * the full enjoyment of any of 
the accommodations, advantages, facilities or privi- 
leges enumerated. 

During 1875 an extensive Whisky Ring, organ- 
ized to control revenue legislation and avoidance of 
revenue taxes, was discovered in the West. It was 
an association of distillers in collusion with Federal 
officers, and for a time it succeeded in defrauding 
the Government of the tax on distilled spirits. An 
unsuccessful effort was made to connect the Presi- 
dent therewith. O. E. Babcock, however, was his 
private secretary, and upon him was charged com- 



298 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

plicity with the fraud. He was tried and acquitted, 
but had to resign. Several Federal officers were 
convicted at St. Louis. 

Richardson, who was Secretary of the Treasury 
in 1873-4, was forced out of the office by the public 
dissatisfaction. 

Another form of corruption was discovered in 
1876, when the House impeached Wm. W. Belknap, 
the Secretary of War, on the charge of selling an 
Indian trading establishment. 

The record shows that Belknap escaped punish- 
ment by a refusal of two-thirds to vote "guilty.'' 
Those "voting not guilty'' generally denied juris- 
diction, and so voted accordingly. Belknap had 
resigned and the claim was set up that he was a 
private citizen. 

By 1874 the Democrats of the South, who then 
generally classed themselves as Conservatives, had 
gained control of all the State Governments except 
those of Louisiana, Florida and South Carolina. In 
nearly all, the Republican Governments had called 
upon President Grant for military aid in maintaining 
their positions, but this was declined except in the 
presence of such outbreaks as the proper State authori- 
ties could not suppress. In Arkansas, Alabama, Mis- 
sissippi, and Texas, Grant declined to interfere. The 
cry came from the Democratic partisans in the South 
for home-rule; another came from the negroes that 
they were constantly disfranchised, intimidated and 
assaulted by the White League, a body of men or- 
ganized in the Gulf States for the purpose of break- 
ing up the " carpet-bag government." 

On July I, 1876, the Centennial of the Declaration 



UL YSSES S. GRANT. 
of Independence was greeted with 



299 



1 . . , -- - rejoicmof m every 

town and city m the land. On May lot the Can- 




' / : 



PETER COOPER. 



tennial Exposition, in Philadelphia, was opened by 
General Grant. For six years Dremmfmnc: i.o/i u^Z 



years preparations had been 



300 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

making to have an exhibition designed to show the 
nation's progress during its first century of existence. 
All the world was invited to contribute examples of 
their products and industries. It was the largest 
display of the kind made up to that time, the cov- 
ered space being over 60 acres, and the cost of the 
buildings was over $6,000,000. It was open for six 
months; and great crowds gathered from all over 
the world to examine the myriads of objects ex- 
hibited. There were 30,000 exhibitors; 33 foreign 
countries were represented; over 10,000,000 visitors 
gathered there; and the admission receipts ran up 
to $4,000,000. 

Colorado was admitted as the 38th State on 
August I, 1776. 

Our original 13 States, with their population of 
4,000,000, had grown to 38 States with nearly 
60,000,000 people, and wealth, comfort and educa- 
tion and art flourished in still larger proportion. 

The people had grown tired of Credit Mobilier, 
Whiskey Ring, Indian Tradership, Salary Grab, and 
other scandals; and some sort of a change was im- 
peratively demanded. As a consequence the 44th 
Congress, which met in December, 1875, had been 
changed by what was called " the tidal wave," from 
Republican to Democratic, and Michael C. Kerr, of 
Indiana, was elected Speaker. The Senate re- 
mained Republican, but with a reduced margin. 

The troubles in the South, and the almost general 
overthrow of the "carpet-bag government," im- 
pressed all with the fact that the Presidential elec- 
tion of 1876 would be exceedingly close and excit- 
ing, and the result confirmed this belief. Tlie 



ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



301 



Greenbackers were the first to meet and Peter 
Cooper, of New York, was nominated for President, 
and Samuel F. Gary, of Ohio, for Vice-President. 

The Republicans met, with James G. Blaine recog- 
nized as the leading candidate. Grant had been 
named for a third term, and there was a belief that 
his name would be presented. Such was the feel- 
ing on this question that the Houses of Congress and 
a Republican State Convention in Pennsylvania 
had passed resolutions declaring that a third term 
for President would be a violation of the " unwritten 
law" handed down through the examples from 
Washington to Jackson. His name, however, was 
not then presented. The ''unit rule" at this con- 
vention was for the first time resisted, and by the 
friends of Blaine, with a view to release from in- 
structions of State Conventions some of his friends. 
New York had instructed for Conkling and Pennsyl- 
vania for Hartranft. The chairman decided against 
the binding force of the unit rule, and to assert the 
liberty of each delegate to vote as he pleased. The 
Convention sustained the decision on an appeal. 

The balloting is here appended. 



ist Ballot 


2d. 


3d. 


4th. 


5th. 


6th. 


7th. 


Blaine 285 


296 


292 


293 


287 


308 


351 


Conkling . . 113 


114 


121 


126 


114 


III 


21 


Bristow 99 


93 


90 


84 


82 


81 




Morton .... 124 


120 


113 


108 


95 


85 




Hartranft . . 58 


63 


68 


71 


69 


50 




Hayes 6r 


64 


67 


68 


102 


113 


384 



Rutherford B. Hayes, of Ohio, was nominated for 
President, and Wm. A. Wheeler, of New York, for 
Vice-President. 



302 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

The Democrats met at St. Louis. Both the 
unit and the two-thirds rule were observed in this 
body. On the second ballot, Samuel J. Tilden, of 
New York, had 535 votes to 203 for all others. His 
leading competitor was Thomas A. Hendricks, of 
Indiana, who was nominated for Vice-President. 

In the election that followed, Hayes and Wheeler 
carried all the Northern States except Connecticut, 
New York, New Jersey and Indiana ; Tilden and 
Hendricks carried all of the Southern States except 
South Carolina, Florida and Louisiana. The three 
last-named States were claimed by the Democrats, 
but the members of the Congressional Investigating 
Committee quieted rival claims as to South Carolina 
by agreeing that it had fairly chosen the Republican 
electors. So close was the result that success or 
failure hinged upon the returns of Florida and 
Louisiana, and for days and weeks conflicting stories 
and claims came from these States. The Demo- 
crats claimed that they had won on the face of the 
returns from Louisiana, and that there was no 
autharity to go behind these. 

Congress met December 5, 1876, and while by that 
time all knew the dangers of the approaching elec- 
toral count, yet neither House would consent to the 
revision of the joint rule regulating the count. The 
Republicans claimed that the President of the Senate 
had the sole authority to open and announce the re- 
turns in the presence of the two Houses; the Demo- 
crats plainly disputed this right, and claimed that the 
joint body could control the count under the law. 

There was grave danger, and it was asserted that 
the Democrats, fearing the President of the Senate 



ULYSSES S. GRANT, 



303 



would exercise the power of declaring the result, 
were preparing first to forcibly and at last with 
secrecy swear in and inaugurate Tilden. 
President ^ 



Grant and 
Secretary of 
War Came- 
ron thought 
the condition 
of affairs crit- 
ical, and both 
made active 
though se 
cret prepara- 
tions to se- 
cure the safe 
if not the 
peaceful in- 
auguration 
of Hayes. 
Grant, in one 
of his senten- 
tious utter- 
ances, said 
he "would 
have peace if 
he had to 
fight for it." 
Members of 

Congress representing both of the great political 
parties substantially agreed upon an Electoral Com- 
mission Act. The leaders on the part of the Re- 
publicans in these conferences were Conkling, Ed- 




SAMUEI, J. TII.DEN. 



304 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



munds, Frelinghuysen; on the part of the Demo- 
crats, Bayard, Gordon, Randall and Hewitt, the 
latter a member of the House and Chairman of the 
Democratic Committee. 

The Electoral Commission, composed of 8 Repub- 
licans and 7 Democrats, met February i, 1877, ^^^^ 
by uniform votes of 8 to 7 decided all objections to 
the electoral vote of Florida, Louisiana, South Car- 
olina, and Oregon, in favor of the Republicans; and 
while the two Houses disagreed on nearly all of these 
points by strict party votes, the electoral votes were, 
under the provisions of the law, given to Hayes and 
Wheeler, and the final result declared to be 185 elec- 
tors for Hayes and Wheeler, to 184 for Tilden and 
Hendricks. The uniform vote of 8 to 7 on all impor- 
tant propositions considered by the Electoral Com- 
mission, to their minds showed a partisan spirit, the 
existence of which it was dijOficult to deny. The 
action of the Republican "visiting statesmen" in 
Louisiana, in practically overthrowing the Packard 
or Republican government there, caused distrust and 
dissatisfaction in the minds of the more radical Re- 
publicans, who contended with every show of reason 
that if Hayes carried Louisiana, Packard, the Re- 
publican nominee for governor, must also have done 
so. The only sensible excuse for seating Hayes on 
the one side and throwing out Governor Packard on 
the other, was a desire for peace in the settlement 
of both Presidential and Southern State issues. 
There was hardly any question but that Tilden was 
elected; but he lacked the nerve and force of char- 
acter to assert his rights. He " dreaded civil war." 
In the formation of the Electoral Commission, the 



i 



ULYSSES S. GRANT. 305 

Democrats were out-geueraled and everywhere out- 
manoeuvered by their keener opponents. The bank- 
ing and commercial class did not want any change 
of administration that might change the existing 
order of things, financially or industrially, and so 
there was an indifferent sort of acquiescence in the 
accepted political arrangements. 

The question of the title of President was finally 
settled June 14, 1878, by the House Judiciary Com- 
mittee, under the following resolution: 

Resolved^ That the two Houses of the 44th Con- 
gress having counted the votes cast for President 
and Vice-President of the United States, and having 
declared Rutherford B. Hayes to be elected Presi- 
dent, and William A. Wheeler to be elected Vice- 
President, there is no power in any subsequent 
Congress to reverse that declaration, nor can any 
such power be exercised by the courts of the United 
States, or any other tribunal that Congress can cre- 
ate under the Constitution. 

After retiring from his eight years' Presidency, 
Grant went on a voyage around the world. He was 
everywhere received with marked cordiality and 
treated as a potentate. The military governments 
of Europe flocked to see the victorious general 
who had put down the great Rebellion. The junket- 
ing round the world kept him favorably before the 
public, and kept him out of the way of any political 
entanglements until the time should come round 
again for the nomination of Presidential candidates in 
1880, when it was the avowed intention of his friends 
to spring his name again on the convention. This 
was popularly called a " third term," though not a 
20 



2o6 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

third consecutive term. His three powerful senato- 
rial friends, in the face of bitter protests, had secured 
the instructions of their respective State conventions 
for Grant. Conkling had done this in New York, 
Cameron in Pennsylvania, Logan in Illinois; but in 
each of the three States the opposition was so im- 
pressive that no serious attempts were made to sub- 
stitute other delegates for those which had previously 
been selected by their Congressional districts. As 
a result there was a large minority in the delegations 
of these States opposed to the nomination of Grant, 
solely on the "third term" issue, and their votes 
could only be controlled by the enforcement of the 
unit rule. Senator Hoar, of Massachusetts, the 
President of the Convention (as did his predecessor 
in the Hayes Convention), decided against its en- 
forcement, and as a result all the delegates were free 
to vote upon either State or district instructions, or as 
they chose. The convention was in session three days. 

Grant, to his credit be it said, wrote a letter to 
Cameron refusing to allow his name to come before 
the convention for a third term. This letter was 
ruthlessly suppres^d by Conkling. The fact that 
such a letter had been written was not made public 
till the fall of 1895; and the good name of Grant 
suffered greatly in consequence. 

Grant started in the ballotings wuth 304 votes, 
which rose to 306, where it stayed for 36 ballots; 
378 votes were necessary for a choice. Blaine re- 
ceived 284, and they stuck to him with the same 
persistency throughout. Sherman and Blaine, to 
defeat Grant, threw their delegations to James A. 
Garfield, who received 399 votes on the 36th ballot. 



RUTHERFORD B. HAYES, 307 

and was declared the nominee. [For particulars of 
the balloting, see under Hayes.] 

Grant engaged with his son in the banking busi- 
ness in New York City, under the name of Grant & 
Ward. The business turned out disastrously. In 
1885, after his bankruptcy, he undertook the com- 
pilation of his "Memoirs," and completed the work 
only four days before his death. The sale of the 
book was something unprecedented, and brought to 
his widow in royalties over half a million dollars. 

His last home was in New York. He fell sick in 
1884, and after a painful eight months' lingering, 
with cancer in the throat, he died at Mount Mc- 
Gregor, near Saratoga, July 23, 1885, and was buried 
with great pomp, August 8, 1885, at Riverside Park 
(on the Hudson), New York City. 



RUTHERFORD B. 'HAYES— 1877-1881. 

Rutherford Birchard Hayes, the nineteenth 
President, was born in Ohio, Oct. 4, 1822. He grad- 
uated in Kenyon College, Ohio, in 1842, and having 
studied law at Harvard College, in Massachusetts, 
moved to Cincinnati, where he practised from 1849 
to 1861. He served with distinction in the Civil 
War as an officer of volunteers, being once severely 
wounded, and he rose to the rank of brevet-major- 
general. He was sent to Congress in 1865 ; was 
elected Governor in 1867, being re-elected in 1869, 
and again in 1875. In 1876 he was nominated by 



3o8 LIVES OF THE 'PRESIDENTS. 

the Republicaus for the Presidency; was declared 
elected by the Electoral Commission, and was inau- 
gurated March 4, 1877. 

William M. Evarts of New York, the ablest man 
in the State, was appointed Secretary of State; and 
John Sherman of Ohio, was given the Treasury De- 
partment. 

From the very beginning the administration of 
Hayes had not the cordial support ol the party, nor 
was it solidly opposed by the Democrats, as was the 
last administration of Grant. His early withdrawal 
of the troops from the Southern States — and it was 
this withdrawal and the suggestion of it from the 
''visiting statesmen" which overthrew the Packard 
government in Louisiana — embittered the hostility 
of many radical Republicans. Senator Conkling, who 
always disliked the President, was conspicuous in 
his opposition, as was Logan of Illinois, and Cam- 
eron of Pennsylvania. It was because of his con- 
servative tendencies, that these three leaders formed 
the purpose to bring Grant again to the Presidency. 
Yet the Hayes Administration was not always con- 
servative, and many believed that its moderation 
had aiforded a much-needed breathing spell to the 
country. Towards its close all became better sat- 
isfied, the radical portion by the President's later 
efforts to prevent the intimidation of negro voters 
in the South — a form of intimidation which was 
now accomplished by means of rifle clubs, still 
another advance from the White League and the 
Ku-Klux. He made this a leading feature in his 
Message to the Congress in 1878, and by an aban- 
donment of his earlier policy he succeeded in re- 



RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 



309 



Uniting what were then fast-separating wings of his 
own party. 

In his last annual Message, in December, 1880, in 




RUTHERFORD B. HAYKS. 



the course of a lengthy discussion of the civil ser- 
vice, the President declared that, in his opinion, 
*' every citizen has an equal right to the honor and 
profit of entering the public service of his countryo 



3IO LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

The only just ground of discrimination is the meas- 
ure of character and capacity he has to make that 
service most useful to the people. Except in cases 
where, upon just and recognized principles, as upon 
the theory of pensions, offices and promotions are 
bestowed as rewards for past services, their bestowal 
upon any theory which disregards personal merit is 
an act of injustice to the citizen, as well as a breach 
of that trust subject to which the appointing power 
is held." 

In pursuance of his reform of the Civil Service, 
he removed Chester A. Arthur (afterwards Vice- 
President and President), from his office of Collector 
at New York City. This is the most valued office 
under the administration, and Arthur was the par- 
ticular friend of Senator Conkling, and a firm be- 
liever in, and upholder of, the old political adage 
that " to the victor belongs the spoils." 

The effect of his administration was, in a political 
sense, to strengthen a growing independent sentiment 
in the ranks of the Republicans — an element more 
conservative generally in its views than those repre- 
sented by Conkling and Blaine. This sentiment 
began with Bristow, who while in the Cabinet made 
a show of seeking out and punishing all corruptions 
in Government office or service. On this platform 
and record he had contested with Hayes the honors 
of the Presidential nominations, and while the latter 
was at the time believed to well represent the same 
views, they were not urgently pressed during his 
administration. Indeed, without the knowledge of 
Hayes, what was said to be a most gigantic "steal," 
under the name of the Star Route bills, had its 



RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 311 

birth, and thrived so well that no important discov- 
ery was made until the incoming of the Garfield 
Administration. The Hayes Administration, it is 
now fashionable to say, made little impress for good 
or evil upon the country, but impartial historians 
will give it the credit of softening party asperities 
and aiding very materially in the restoration of better 
feeling between the North and South. Its conser- 
vatism, always manifested save on extraordinary 
occasions, did that much good at least. He was 
active in pressing forward the resumption of specie 
payments. 

He died on January 17, 1893, and was buried at 
Columbus, Ohio. 

The Republicans met, June 5, 1880, at Chicago. 
The excitement in the ranks of the Republicans 
was very high, because of the candidacy of Grant 
for what was popularly called a "third term," 
though not a third consecutive term. His friends, 
in the face of bitter protests, had secured the in- 
structions of their respective State Conventions for 
Grant. Conkling had done this in New York, Cam- 
eron in Pennsylvania, Logan in Illinois. Still there 
was a large minority in the delegations of these 
States opposed to his nomination. The convention 
was in session three days. The following was the 
vote on the first ballot: Grant, 304; Blaine, 284; 
Sherman, 93; Edmunds, 34; Washburne, 30; Win- 
dom, 10. On the second ballot, Garfield and Har- 
rison each received one vote. The vote remained 
about the same for three days, when it got to be 
"anything to beat Grant.'' 

The prejudice against a third term is unyielding. 



312 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS, 

It is more than sentiment. It is wisdom. Expe- 
rience has burned this precaution in the public mind. 
Great power must frequently be recalled by the peo- 
ple and transferred to new hands. And so Grant 
was called down. 

James A. Garfield, of Ohio, was nominated on the 
36th ballot, Grant's forces alone remaining solid. 
After Garfield's nomination there was a temporary 
adjournment, during which the friends of the nom- 
inee consulted Conkling and his leading friends, and 
the result was the selection of Chester A. Arthur of 
New York for Vice-President. The object of this 
selection was to carry New York, the great State 
which was then believed to hold the key to the Pres- 
idential position. 

John Sherman, in 1895, published his "Forty 
Years' Recollections." Here he accused Garfield of 
a shameful betrayal of trust. Garfield was the ac- 
knowledged leader of the Sherman forces at the 
convention; and it was his duty to stick to the last 
to the candidate to whom he and his delegates were 
pledged. It was thought that after Grant had tried 
and failed, that the ill-feeling between Conkling and 
Blaine would prevent the latter's nomination, and 
that Sherman would be the natural and unquestioned 
candidate. Garfield declared that the stampede of 
the convention in his favor was sudden and uncon- 
trollable. 

The Vice-Presidential • nomination was first ten- 
dered to Levi P. Morton, who consulted Conkling as 
to his acceptance. Conkling advised against it, and 
the feeling was that owing to Conkling's resentment, 
Garfield would lose New York's vote. Arthur was 



RUTHERFORD B. HAVES. 313 

a close friend of Conkling, and he was begged to 
take the nomination in the hope of placating Conk- 
ling, who also advised Arthur not to take it. 

Arthur had been the leader of the New York Re- 
publican party, and was credited with having made 
many a deal with Kelly, the Democratic leader, and 
he felt satisfied he could carry New York. The 
result justified his expectations. 

The Democrats met at Cincinnati, June 22, 1880. 
Tilden had, up to the holding of the Pennsylvania 
State Convention, been the most promising candi- 
date. There was a struggle between the Wallace 
and Randall factions of Pennsylvania, the former 
favoring Hancock, the latter Tilden. Wallace won, 
and bound the delegation by the unit rule. When 
the convention met, John Kelly, the Tammany 
leader of New York, was again there, as at St. Louis 
four years before, to oppose Tilden, but the latter 
sent a letter disclaiming that he was a candidate, 
and yet really inviting a nomination on the issue of 
''the fraudulent counting in of Hayes." There 
were but two ballots. On the first ballot, the " fa- 
vorite sons" of the several States received tlie cus- 
tomary complimentary vote. On the first ballot 
Hancock received 171 votes; Bayard, 153^; and 
Tilden, 38. On the second ballot Hancock received 
705, Tilden i, Hendricks 30. 

Thus General Winfield Scott Hancock, of New 
York, was nominated on the second ballot. William 
H. English, of Indiana, was nominated for Vice- 
President. 

The Greenback-Iyabor Convention nominated Gen- 
eral J. B. Weaver, of Iowa, for President; and 



^14 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

General B. J. Chambers, of Texas, for Vice-Presi- 
dent. 

In the canvass which followed, the Republicans 
were aided by such orators as Conkling, Blaine, Grant, 
Logan, Curtis, Boutwell, while the Camerons, father 
and son, visited the October States of Ohio and In- 
diana, as it was believed that these would determine 
the result, Maine having in September very unex- 
pectedly defeated the Republican State ticket by a 
small majority. Conkling held aloof at first. It was 
believed that Hancock's splendid military record 
would carry him through, and it was absolutely 
necessary to do something to offset this popularity. 
Great influences were brought to bear on Conkling 
for assistance. With Grant, he swung around the 
circle of States, making a "business " campaign of 
it; predicting all manner of direful things if a change 
were made in the administration of affairs. The 
" business" vote settled it. Garfield was elected. 

General Hancock made the great blunder of saying 
that the " tariff was a purely local issue." This 
sentence cost him Pennsylvania. It has been stated 
that Senator M. S. Quay spent $50,000 of his own 
money, besides all the ^' fat " that he " fried out of 
the Pennsylvania manufacturers," in carrying the 
State against Hancock. The Democrats were aided 
by Bayard, Voorhees, Randall, Wallace, Hill, Hamp- 
ton, Lamar, and hosts of their best orators. Every 
issue was recalled, but for the first time in the his- 
tory of the Republicans of the West, they accepted 
the tariff issue, and made open war on the plank in 
the Democratic platform — "a tariff for revenue 
only." Iowa, Ohio, and Indiana all elected the 



RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 315 

Republican State tickets with good margins; West 
Virginia went Democratic, but the result was, not- 
withstanding this, reasonably assured to the Repub- 




GENERAI. W. S. HANCOCK. 



licans. The Democrats, however, feeling the strong- 
personal popularity of their leading candidate, per- 
sisted with high courage to the end. In November 



3i6 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

all of the Southern States, with New Jersey, Cali- 
fornia, and Nevada in the North, went Democratic; 
all of the others, Republican. The Greenbackers 
held only a balance of power, which they could 
not exercise, in California, Indiana, and New Jersey. 
The electoral vote of Garfield and Arthur was 214; 
that of Hancock and English, 155. The popular 
vote was: Republican, 4,442,950; Democratic, 4,442,- 
035; Greenback or National, 306,867; scattering, 
12,576. The Congressional elections in the same 
canvass gave the Republicans 147 members, the 
Democrats, 136; Greenbackers, 9; Independents, i. 



JAMES A. GARFIELD— 1881 (200 days). 

James Abram Garfikld, the twentieth Presi- 
dent, was born in Ohio, November 19, 1831, of 
Puritan ancestors. His father died soon after the 
birth of James, leaving a widow and four small 
children in poor circumstances. He knew what 
deprivation and poverty meant. When he was ten 
years old he did such work as he could on the neigh- 
boring farms, chopping wood, and driving horses on 
the tow-path of a canal, and drudging generally; 
and spent his winters at the district school. In 1849 
he joined the Campbellites, a religious offshoot from 
the Baptists. He went through Hiram College, 
in Ohio, supporting himself by teaching, and gradu- 
ated at Williams College, in Massachusetts, in 1856. 

Returning to Hiram College, which was a Camp- 
bellite institution, he became its president, and there 



JAMES A. GARl^IELD. 



V^l 



began studying law. He was elected to the State 
Seuate in 1859; ^^^ when the war began he was 




JAMES ABRAM GARFIELD. 



placed in command of a regiment of volunteers. 
In 1862 he was made a brigadier-general, and was 
promoted to be a major-general for gallantry at 



3i8 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



Chickamauga. He shortly after resigned his com- 
mand to enter Congress. He remained in Congress 
till 1880, where he rendered valuable service on mil- 
itary and financial questions. In January, 1880, he 
was elected to the United States Senate; and in 
June of the same year he was nominated for the 
Presidency on the Republican ticket. His nomina- 
tion was a surprise, and the result of a fusion of the 
friends of Sherman and Blaine to defeat Grant. He 
delivered speeches in his own behalf during the 
campaign (an unprecedented performance up to this 
time), and defeated General Hancock, his Democratic 
opponent, by a very narrow majority on the popular 
vote, but by 214 to 155 on the electoral vote. James 
B. Weaver, the Greenbacker and Labor candidate, 
polled 307,306 votes; and there were over 10,000 
votes cast for the Prohibition ticket. 

James A. Garfield was inaugurated President on 
March 4, 1881. His address promised full and equal 
protection of the Constitution and the laws for the 
negro, advocated universal education as a safeguard 
of suffrage, and recommended such an adjustment 
of our monetary system " that the purchasing power 
of every coined dollar will be exactly equal to its 
debt-paying power in all the markets of the world." 
The national debt should be refunded at a lower 
rate of interest, without compelling the withdrawal 
of the National Bank notes; polygamy should be 
prohibited, and civil service regulated by law. 

James G. Blaine was made Secretary of State; 
William Windom, of Minnesota, Secretarj^ of the 
Treasury; and Robert T. Lincoln, of Illinois, a son 
of the martyred President), Secretary of War. 



jyiiyiii,^) Ji. u^J\:rirLi^u. •510 

The parties were even in this session of the Senate 
and Vice-President Arthur had to employ the cast- 
ing-vote on all questions where the parties divided ; 
he invariably cast it on the side of the Republicans. 

The President nominated William H. Robertson, 
the leader of the Blaine wing of the party in New 
York, to be Collector of Customs. He had previ- 
ously sent in five names for prominent places in 
New York, at the suggestion of Senator Conkling, 
who had been invited by the President to name his 
friends. Conkling always distrusted Garfield, and 
placed but little reliance on his promises; but at 
this interview it was stated that Garfield intimated 
that no immediate change in the New York Collec- 
torship would be made, and both factions seemed 
satisfied to allow Edwin A. Merritt to retain that 
place, for a time at least. There were loud protests, 
however, at the first and early selection of the friends 
of Conkling to five important places, and these pro- 
tests were heeded by the President. With a view 
to meet them, and, doubtless, to quiet the spirit 
of faction rapidly, developing between the Grant 
and anti-Grant elements of the party in the State 
of New York, the name of Robertson was sent in 
for the Collectorship — the most lucrative and the 
most coveted post in the entire Union. He had bat- 
tled against the unit rule at Chicago, disavowed the 
instructions of his State Convention to vote for 
Grant, and led the Blaine delegates from that State 
while Blaine was in the field; and when withdrawn 
went to Garfield. Conkling sought to confirm his 
friends, and hold back his enemy from confirmation; 
but these tactics induced Garfield to withdraw the 



320 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

nomination of Conkling's friends, and in this way 
Robertson's name was alone presented for a time. 
Against this course Vice-President Arthur and Sen- 
ators Conkling and Piatt remonstrated in a letter to 
the President, but he remained firm. Conkling, under 
the plea of " the privilege of the Senate " — a cour- 
tesy and custom which leaves to the Senators of a 
State the right to say who shall be confirmed or 
rejected from their respective States if of the same 
party — now sought to defeat Robertson. In this 
battle he had arrayed against him the influence of 
his great rival, Blaine, and the whole power of the 
administration. He lost, and the morning following 
the secret vote, (May 17, 1881,) his own and the res- 
ignation of Senator Piatt were read. These resigna- 
tions caused great excitement throughout the entire 
country. They were prepared without consultation 
with any one — even Vice-President Arthur, the inti- 
mate friend of both, not knowing anything of the 
movement until the letters were opened at the chair 
where he presided. Logan and Cameron — Conk- 
ling's colleagues in the great Clijcago battle — were 
equally unadvised. The resignations were forwarded 
to Governor Cornell, of New York, who sought to 
have them reconsidered and withdrawn, but both 
Senators were firm. The Senate confirmed Robert- 
son for Collector, and General Merritt as Consul- 
General at London, Garfield having wisely renewed 
the Conkling list of appointees, most of whom de- 
clined to accept under the changed condition of 
affairs. 

These events more widely separated the factions 
in New York — one wing calling itself "Stalwart," 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 331 

the other *' Half-Breed," a term of contempt flung 
at the Independents by Conkling. Elections fol- 
lowed to fill the vacancies, the New York Legisla- 
ture being in session. It was confidently assumed 
that both Conkling and Piatt would be immediately 
returned. This would give Conkling the endorse- 
ment of his State in his opposition to the adminis- 
tration. Vice-President Arthur worked indefatigably 
but unavailino'lv in his effort to brinor r^^.^%i.\^^' 



'?5'^' w^^w^w »,W ,^^^..J^ ^^^^^ ^ 



renomination around. These vacancies gave the 
Democrats for the time control of the U. S. Sen- 
ate, but they thought it unwise to pursue an advan- 
tage which would compel them to show their hands 
for or against one or other of the opposing Republi- 
can factions. 

The New York Legislature balloted for successors 
to Conkling and Piatt. The contest lasted until 
July 22, and resulted in a compromise on Warner 
A. Miller, as Piatt's successor, and Elbridge G. 
Lapham as Conkling' s successor. 

On the morning of Saturday, July 2, 1881, Gar- 
field accompanied by Blaine, left the Executive 
Mansion to take a train for New England, where he 
intended to visit the college from which he had 
graduated. He was walking through the main 
waiting-room, when Charles J. Guiteau, a persist- 
ent and disappointed office-seeker, entered through 
the main door, and fired two shots, one of which took 
fatal effect. The bullet striking the President about 
four inches to the right of the spinal column, struck 
the tenth and badly shattered the eleventh rib. The 
shock to the President's system was very severe, 
and at first apprehensions were felt that death would 
21 



322 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

ensue speedily. Two hours after the shooting, he 
was removed to the Executive Mansion. 

It was necessary to remove the patient to a more 
favorable atmosphere. On September 6, he was 
conveyed in a car to Long Branch, where, in a 
cottage at Blberon, it was hoped vigor would return. 
At first, indications justified the most sanguine 
expectations, but he died at 10.35 on the night of 
September 19, 1881, and our nation mourned, as it 
had only done once before, when x^braham Lincoln 
also fell by the hand of an assassin. Guiteau was 
tried, convicted, and hung, the jury rejecting his 
plea of insanity. 

Once again was the country draped in mourning as 
the body of the second assassinated President passed 
through the land amid crowds of reverent spectators 
to its final resting-place in Cleveland, Ohio. 

The New York Chamber of Commerce started a 
popular subscription for Mrs. Garfield and collected 
$360,345.74; an amount generous and ample enough 
to comfortably provide for her and her four sons and 
one daughter. 

At midnight on September 19, the Cabinet tele- 
graphed to Vice-President Arthur to take the oath 
of office, and this he very properly did before a local 
judge. The Government cannot wisely be left 
without a head for a single day. He was soon after- 
wards again sworn in at Washington, with the usual 
ceremonies. He requested the Cabinet to hold on 
until Congress met, and it would have remained 
intact had Secretary Windom not found it necessary 
to resume his place in the Senate. 



CHESTER A. ARTHUR. 333 



CHESTER A. ARTHUR— 1881-1885. 

Chester Alan Arthur, who became our twenty- 
first President, on the assassination of James A. 
Garfield, was born in Vermont, October 5, 1830. 
His father was a Baptist minister and a native of the 
North of Ireland. He distinguished himself as a 
student at Union College, New York, and devoting 
himself to law studies, was admitted to the bar in 
1853/ At the beginning of the Civil War he held 
the post of inspector-general, and during the war he 
was quarter-master-general for the New York forces. 
He took a prominent share in politics on the Repub- 
lican side, and in 187 1, General Grant appointed 
him Collector of Customs at the port of New York, 
a very much coveted post. As being hostile to the 
reform in the civil service aimed at by President 
Hayes, he was removed from this post in 1878. He 
was the leader of the Republican party in New York 
State, and though belonging to the section of the 
party opposed to civil service reform to that repre- 
sented by Garfield he was made the Vice-President 
when Garfield became President in 1881. Garfield's 
death called him to the supreme magistracy of the 
Union. He was provisionally inaugurated at mid- 
night on September 19, 1881, on notice of Garfield's 
death. He was formally sworn into the office later 
at Washington with the customary ceremonies. 

One of 'his law cases that first brought him into 
notoriety in New York City was the winning of a 
suit in 1856, giving blacks the right to ride on the 
horse cars. Some of the cars at that time bore the 



324 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



curious legend, "Colored people allowed to ride in 
these cars." 

He brought to his Cabinet as Secretary of State, 
T. F. Freylinghuysen, of New Jersey. For Secre- 
tary of the Treasury he appointed Charles J. Folger, 
of New York, and upon his death, soon after taking 
the office, it was conferred upon Walter Q. Gresham, 
of Illinois. He offered Senator Conkling a seat in 
the Supreme Court, but it was declined. He signed 
the anti-polygamy bill, March 23, 1882. 

In person Arthur was tall, large, well-propor- 
tioned, and of distinguished presence. His manners 
were affable. He was genial in domestic and social 
life, and warmly liked by his personal friends. 

General Arthur's was a quiet, clean, and business- 
like administration. He succeeded in checking the 
divisions in his party, and retired on March 4, 1885, 
with the good will of the entire country. In this 
respect he differed from all the preceding "acci- 
dental" Presidents, like Tyler, Fillmore, and John- 
son. He died suddenly of apoplexy in New York 
City, November 18, 1886, and was buried at Albany, 
New York. 

The Chinese Question was settled during this 
administration. Since 1877 there had been a con- 
stant agitation in California, and other States and 
Territories on the Pacific slope, for the prohibition 
of Chinese immigration, which they regarded in the 
light of an invasion. 

President Hayes vetoed the first bill interdicting 
such immigration on the ground that it was a "vio- 
lation of the spirit of treaty stipulations." 

On February 28, 1882, a new bill was offered in 



CHESTER A. ARTHUR. 



325 



the Senate prohibiting immigration to Chinese or 
Coolie laborers for a period of 20 years. Senator 
John F. Miller, who fathered the bill and who was 




CHESTKR AI,AN ARTHUR. 



conversant with all the leading facts in the history 

of the agitation, in explaining this antipathy said: 

" It has been said that the advocates of Chinese 



326 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



restriction were to be found only among the vicious, 
unlettered foreign element of California society. To 
show the fact in respect of this contention, the 
Legislature of California in 1878 provided for a vote 
of the people upon the question of Chinese immi- 
gration (so called) to be had at the general election 
of 1879. The vote was legally taken, without ex- 
citement, and the response was general. When 
the ballots were counted, there were found to be 
883 votes for Chinese immigration and 154,638 
against it. A similar vote was taken in Nevada 
and resulted as follows: 183 votes for Chinese immi- 
gration and 17,259 votes against." 

Senator Jones, of Nevada, supported the bill and 
in resisting the fallacy that cheap labor produces 
national wealth called attention to the home condi- 
tion of the 350,000,000 Chinese. 

The bill passed the Senate by a 29 to 15 vote, and 
passed the House, March 23, 1882, by 167 favoring 
votes to 65 negative votes, and receiving the approval 
of Arthur became a law. 

In 1884, the Republican Convention met at 
Chicago. The candidates for nomination were: 
Chester A. Arthur, of New York ; James G. Blaine, 
of Maine; John Sherman, of Ohio; George F. Ed- 
munds, of Vermont; John A. Logan, of Illinois; 
and Joseph R. Hawley, of Connecticut. The con- 
vention sat for four da3^s, and balloted as follows : 

ist Ballot. 2d. 3d. 4tli. 

Blaine 334 349 375 541 

Arthur 278 275 274 207 

Edmunds 93 85 96 41 

T-ogan 63 61 53 7 

Sherman 30 28 25 — 



CHESTER A. ARTHUR. 



327 



There were 820 votes. Blaine and Logan received 
the nominations for President and Vice-President, 
In this convention. President Arthur stood out 




JAMES G. BIvAINE;. 

for the nomination as his due, and as a vindication 
of the clean and dignified administration he had 
given the country after Garfield's death. Gresham, 



328 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



who was Arthur's Secretary of the Treasury, was 
approached about his candidacy, but he insisted that 
under no circumstances would he allow his name to 
be used as long as Arthur desired the nomination. 
He was loyal to his chief, and did all that he could 
to promote his chances to succeed himself. But it 
was not to be. 

The Democrats also met in Chicago. Opposition 
was manifested to the unit rule. An effort was made 
to abolish the two-thirds rule, but this was met with 
such decided disfavor that it was abandoned. 

The prominent nominees were: Grover Cleveland, 
of New York; Thomas F. Bayard, of Delaware; 
Allen G. Thurman, of Ohio; and Samuel J. Randall, 
of Pennsylvania. There were only two ballots taken. 
On the first, Cleveland had 392 votes. Bayard, 168, 
Thurman 88, Randall 78, and there were about 90 
scattering votes. On the second ballot, Grover 
Cleveland received 684 votes (547 being necessary), 
and he was therefore declared the nominee for the 
Presidency. Thomas A. Hendricks, of Indiana, was 
given the nomination for Vice-President. 

The People's and Greenback ticket nominated 
Benjamin F. Butler, who polled 133,880 votes, thus 
aiding the Blaine ticket; but as an offset to this, the 
Prohibition ticket polled 150,633 votes, nearly all 
of which were pulled from the Republican nominees. 
Grover Cleveland was elected President, receiving 
219 electoral votes, while Blaine polled but 182 
votes. On the popular vote, Cleveland had a plu- 
rality of nearly 63,000 votes. 

This was probably the most exciting canvass in 
the history of American politics. Fiery enthusiasm 



CHESTER A. ARTHUR. 



329 



on both sides was everywhere displayed, and both 
parties indulged in the hottest kind of partisanship. 
The personal character of both the Presidential 




GENERAI, BENJAMIN F. BUTI^ER. 

nominess were rancorously assailed. It was a veri- 
table campaign of mud. Blaine and Logan made 
tours around the country. Blaine was followed by re- 
porters and shadowed by detectives in the hope that 



330 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



he might be betrayed into some expression that 
could be used against him or tortured into helping 
his opponents. He had almost got to the end, and 
would unquestionably have been elected, but for one 
miserable mishap — or, as was claimed, a trick that 
was sprung upon him on the Thursday preceding 
the election. 

Blaine was in New York, and among the many 
delegations visiting him was one of 300 ministers, 
who wished to show their confidence in his moral 
and intellectual fitness for the Chief Magistracy. 
The oldest of the ministers present was Mr. Burch- 
ard, and he was assigned to deliver the address. In 
closing it, he referred to what he thought ought to 
be a common opposition to " Rum, Romanism, and 
Rebellion" — an alliteration which not only awak- 
ened the wrath of the Democracy, but which quickly 
estranged many of the Irish-American supporters 
of Blaine and Logan. 

Blaine on the two following days tried to counteract 
the effects of an imprudence for which he was in no 
way responsible, but the alliteration was instantly 
and everywhere employed to revive religious issues 
and hatreds, and to such an extent that circulars 
were distributed at the doors of Catholic churches, 
implying that Blaine himself had used the offensive 
words. It was placarded all along the New York 
State canals. A more unexpected blow was never 
known in our political history. It determined the 
result. It changed New York's 36 electoral votes 
and gave Cleveland the Presidency. 



G ROVER CLEVELAND. 331 

GROVER CLEVELAND— I ^g^5-i889. 

Stephen Grover Cleveland, our twenty-sec- 
ond, and twenty-fourth President, was born in New 
Jersey, on March 18, 1837. His father was a Pres- 
byterian minister, who moved into New York when 
Grover was about three years old. The father died, 
leaving his widow with five children, and in poor 
circumstances. He first clerked in a store. In 1859 
he was admitted to the bar, and started practising in 
Buffalo. When the war broke out, it is said he 
desired to enlist, but he was dissuaded by the idea 
that some one should stay at home and look after 
the family. Two of his brothers went off to the 
front. He was drafted, but the State provided a 
substitute. From 1863 to 1866 he was Assistant Dis- 
trict Attorney for Erie County. He rose to be 
Sheriff, and subsequently Mayor of Buffalo. In 
1882, aided by a united party and the hearty support 
of the independent press of the State, he was elected 
Governor by a sweeping majority. His administra- 
tion of the office satisfied everybody. In 1884 he 
was the Demo^5Jratic nominee for the Presidency, and 
after a most exciting canvass was elected, receiving 
219 electoral votes, while his opponent, Blaine, re- 
ceived but 182 votes. He was inaugurated March 
4, 1885, and served his term of four years. 

In 1888, Cleveland was unanimously renominated; 
but he was this time defeated by Benjamin Harrison. 
In 1892 he was again placed at the head of the Dem- 
ocratic ticket with President Harrison again his op- 
ponent; and, after a very close canvass, he was once 



332 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

more elected; and once more, on March 4, 1893, lie 
took the oath at Washington to ' ' faithfully execute 
the office of President." 

In his first term, Thomas F. Bayard, of Delaware, 
was appointed Secretary of State; and Daniel Man- 
ning of New York was placed in charge of the Treas- 
ury. Manning was a very able man; he was greatly 
instrumental in securing the nomination for Cleve- 
land, and subsequently very active in electing him. 

This (1885-1889) was the first Democratic adminis- 
tration in 24 years. The politicians were naturally 
hungry for office, and raised the cry, "Turn the 
rascals out." The President ignored this clamor, 
and declared that "public office was a public 
trust," and in consequence there would be no whole- 
sale dismissals. This was not particularly cheering 
to the rank and file, who had walked the wilderness 
for a quarter of a century; and it was the occasion 
of widespread dissatisfaction within his party. 

The efforts of the first administration were directed 
towards appeasing civic wranglings and holding a 
close political alliance with the Civil Service re- 
formers, without disrupting the party by totally re- 
fusing to distribute the spoils of office. Things went 
along smoothly till the meeting of Congress in 1887, 
when, instead of the customary Message dealing 
with the foreign relations of the nation, Cleveland 
precipitated a surprising address on the Tariff ques- 
tion, dealing with our domestic affairs. This address 
was forced into such prominence in the ensuing 
Presidential campaign, where it was made the single 
issue, that we append a few of its more striking 
features; more particularly as it seemed to then voice 



G ROVER CLEVELAND. 



333 



the prevailing sentiment of the Democratic party 
throughout the country. 




eROVER CIvEVElvAND. 



" The amount of money annually exacted, through 
the operation of the present (tariff) laws, from the 



334 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

industries and necessities of the people, largely ex- 
ceeds the sum necessary to meet the expenses of the 
Government. 

''On June 30, 1885, the excess of revenues over 
public expenditures, after complying with the annual 
requirements of the sinking-fund act, was $17,859,- 
735.84; during the year ended June 30, 1886, such 
excess amounted to $49,405,545.20; and during the 
year ended June 30, 1887, it reached the sum of 

#55,567,849-54. . , ^ 

" Our scheme of taxation, by means of which this 
needless surplus is taken from the people and put 
into the public treasury, consists of a tariff or duty 
levied upon importations from abroad, and internal 
revenue taxes levied upon the consumption of to- 
bacco and spirituous and malt liquors. It must be 
conceded that none of the things subjected to inter- 
nal revenue taxation are, strictly speaking, neces- 
saries; there appears to be no just complaint of this 
taxation by the consumers of these articles, and there 
seems to be nothing so well able to bear the burden 
without hardship to any portion of the people. 

''But our present tariff laws, the vicious, inequi- 
table and illogical source of unnecessary taxation, 
ought to be at once revised and amended. These 
laws, as their primary and plain effect, raise the price 
to consumers of all articles imported and subject to 
duty, by precisely the sum paid for such duties. 
Thus the amount of the duty measures the tax paid 
by those who purchase for use these imported arti- 
cles. Many of these things, however, are raised or 
manufactured in our own country, and the duties 
now levied upon foreign goods and products are 



GROVER CLEVELAND. 335 

called protection to these home manufactures, be- 
cause they render it possible for those of our people 
who are manufacturers, to make these taxed articles 
and sell them for a price equal to that demanded for 
the imported goods that have paid customs duty. 
So it happens that while comparatively few use 
the imported articles, millions of our people, who 
never use and never saw any of the foreign products, 
purchase and use things of the. same kind made in 
this country, and pay therefor nearly or quite the 
same enhanced price which the duty adds to the 
imported articles. Those who buy imports pay the 
duty charged thereon into the public treasury, but 
the great majority of our citizeus, who buy domestic 
articles of the same class, pay a sum at least approx- 
imately equal to this duty to the home manufacturer. 
This reference to the operation of our taifF laws is 
not made by way of instruction, but in order that 
we may be constantly reminded of the manner in 
which they impose a burden upon those who con- 
sume domestic products as well as those who con- 
sume import"^ articles, and thus create a tax upon 
all our people. 

''The simple and plain duty which we owe the 
people is to reduce taxation to the necessary expenses 
of an economical operation of the Government, and 
to restore to the business of the country the money 
which we hold in the treasury through the perver- 
sion of governmental powers. These things can 
and should be done with safety to all our industries, 
without danger to the opportunity for remunerative 
labor which our workingmen need, and with benefit 
to them and all our people, by cheapening their 



T^^e LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

means of subsistence and increasing the measure of 
their comforts. " 

Blaine was in Paris when the President's address 
was issued. He cabled an answer, from which we 
quote: 

"The English papers declare that the Message is 
a free-trade manifesto, and evidently are anticipating 
an enlarged market for English fabrics in the United 
States as a consequence of the President's recom- 
mendations for a revenue tariff, rejecting the pro- 
tective features as an object, and not even permit- 
ting it to result freely as an incident to revenue 
duties. 

"For the first time in the history of the United 
States the President recommends retaining the in- 
ternal tax, in order that the tariff may be forced 
down even below the fair revenue standard. He 
would retain the tax on tobacco that many millions 
annually shall be levied on a domestic product 
which would far better come from a tariff on foreign 
fabrics. 

" I would at once repeal the tax on tobacco. To 
retain it now in order to destroy the protection 
which would incidentally flow from raising the 
same amount of money on foreign imports, is a most 
extraordinary policy for our Government. 

"I would not advise the repeal of the whiskey 
tax, because other considerations than those of 
financial administration are to be taken into account 
with regard to whiskey. There is a moral side to it. 
Whiskey has done a vast deal of harm in the United 
States. I would try to make it do some good. I 
would use the tax to fortify our cities on the sea- 



GROVER CLEVELAND. 337 

board. Never before in the history of the world, 
has any government allowed great cities on the sea- 
board, like Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Balti- 
more, New Orleans, and San Francisco to remain 
defenceless. 

" I should seriously object to the repeal of the duty 
on wool. It would work great injustice to many 
interests, and would seriously discourage what we 
should encourage, namely, the sheep culture among 
farmers throughout the Union. To break wool- 
growing and be dependent on foreign countries for 
the blanket under which we sleep, and the coat that 
covers our back is not a wise policy for the National 
Government to enforce. 

'' Possibly in some articles of peculiar construction 
the changes recommended might tend to increase 
our export trade. How are we to export staple 
fabrics to the markets of Europe, and how are we to 
manufacture them cheaper than they do in Europe, 
unless we get cheaper labor than they have in 
Europe? Whenever we can force carpenters, 
masons, iron-workers, and mechanics in every de- 
partment to work as cheaply and live as poorly in 
the United States as similar workmen in Europe, 
we can, of course, manufacture just as cheaply as 
they do in England and France. But I am totally 
opposed to a policy that would entail such results. 
To attempt it is equivalent to a social and financial 
revolution, one that would bring untold distress. 

"The moment you begin to import freely from 
Europe you drive our own workmen from mechani- 
cal and manufacturing pursuits. In the same pro- 
portion they become tillers of the soil, increasing 
zz 



338 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

steadily the agricultural products and decreasing 
steadily the large home demand which is constantly 
enlarging as home manufactures enlarge. That, of 
course, works great injury to the farmer, glutting 
the market with his products and tending constantly 
to lower prices. 

'' There never was a time when the increase of a 
large home market was so valuable to him. The 
best proof is that the farmers are prosperous in pro- 
portion to the nearness of manufacturing centres, 
and a protective tariff tends to spread manufactures. 
In Ohio and Indiana, for example, though not 
classed as manufacturing States, the annual value 
of fabrics is larger than the annual value of agri- 
cultural products." 

"It is vastly more important not to lose our own 
great market for our own people in vain effort to 
reach the impossible. It is not our foreign trade 
that has caused the wonderful growth and expansion 
of the republic. It is the vast domestic trade be- 
tween thirty-eight States and eight Territories, with 
their population of 62,000,000 to-day. The whole 
amount of our export and import trade together has 
never, I think, reached $1,900,000,000 any one year. 
Our internal home trade on 130,000 miles of railway, 
along 15,000 miles of ocean coast, over the five great 
lakes and along 20,000 miles of navigable rivers, 
reaches the enormous annual aggregate of more 
than $40,000,000,000, and perhaps this year 
150,000,000,000. 

''It is into this illimitable trade, even now in its 
infancy and destined to attain a magnitude not 
dreamed of twenty years ago, that the Europeans 



G ROVER CLEVELAND, 33^ 

are struggling to enter. It gives an absolutely free 
trade over a territory nearly as large as all Europe, 
and the profit is all our own. The genuine Free- 
trader appears unable to see or comprehend that this 
continental trade — not our exchanges with Europe 
— is the source of our prosperity. President Cleve- 
land now plainly proposes a policy that will admit 
Europe to a share of this trade. 

" If any man can give a reason why we should ar- 
range the tariff to favor the raw material of other 
countries in a competition against our material of 
the same kind, I should like to hear it. Should 
that recommendation of the President be approved, 
it would turn 100,000 American laborers out of em- 
ployment before it had been a year in operation. 

" It will bring the country where it ought to be 
brought — to a full and fair contest on the question 
of protection. The President himself makes the one 
issue by presenting no other in his Message. I think 
it well to have the question settled. The democratic 
party in power is a standing menace to the industrial 
prosperity of the country. That menace should be 
removed or the policy it foreshadows should be made 
certain. Nothing is so mischievous to business as 
uncertainty, nothing so paralyzing as doubt." 

We make these lengthy quotations from the lead- 
ers of the two great parties, because they empha- 
size the attitude of their respective parties to the 
question. 

The Democrats met in St. lyouis, on June 5, 1888, 
and were in session three days. The President's last 
Message and the Mills Tariff Bill were endorsed. 
This result was not satisfying to the Protective 



340 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



Tariff Democrats, but they were without any large 
or courageous representation, and the Platform was 
adopted with but one dissenting vote. Grover Cleve- 
land was renominated by acclamation. The Vice- 
Presidential nomination went to Allen G. Thurman, 
of Indiana. 

The Republicans met at Chicago, on June 19, 
1888. Blaine was up in all the ballots, and it was 
within the power of his friends to nominate him; 
but his final refusal led them to vote for Benjamin 
Harrison of Indiana. Levi P. Morton, of New York, 
was nominated for Vice-President. The voting 
opened with 229 votes for John Sherman, of Ohio; 
W. Q. Gresham received iii votes; Harrison re- 
ceived 80 votes on the first ballot, then rose to 298, 
and on the eighth ballot received 544 votes. 

The Executive Committee of each party devoted 
themselves to hard, practical work. Over $2, 000, 000 
was spent by the Democrats, and the Republicans 
raised and expended |i, 300,000. It was a business 
battle largely waged between the manufacturing and 
importing interests — the small farmers being on the 
side of the manufacturers; the planters adhering to 
their support of the Free Trade tendencies of the 
Democratic party. 

The Republicans accepted in the plainest way the 
issue thus thrust upon the country by Cleveland's 
Message. Visiting delegates from both parties went 
through all the great States, enthusing their respec- 
tive partisans. It was a most trying campaign for a 
new candidate, and for a time there was grave fear 
that a mistake might be made, or a trap sprung, 
like that of Burchard on Blaine in 1884; but Gen- 



GROVE R CLEVELAND. 341 

eral Harrison was singularly fortunate in all his 
utterances, and yet so earnest and able, that his own 
work soon began to be recognized as the best of the 
campaign. President Cleveland was compelled by 
his official duties, and probably by inclination, to 
keep out of even the speaking part of the campaign. 
The cry of the Republicans was: "No, no, no free 
trade;" while that of the Democrats was: "Don't 
be afraid; tariff reform is not free trade." 

The election resulted in Harrison's receiving 233 
electoral votes. Cleveland got but 168 votes. Har- 
rison and Morton were therefore elected, and took 
their offices on March 4, 1889. 

During Cleveland's first term, four States were ad- 
mitted into the Union on February 22, 1889: North 
Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Washington. 

For the incidents surrounding the subsequent, or 
1893 campaign, see under Harrison. 

Grover Cleveland was inaugurated as our twenty- 
fourth President on March 4, 1893. To his Cabinet 
he called Walter Q. Gresham, of Illinois (a Repub- 
lican), as Secretary of State; Senator John G. Car- 
lisle, of Kentucky, was placed at the head of the 
Treasury Department; Daniel S. Lamont, of New 
York (who had been his private secretary during his 
first term), was given the War Office; Wilson S. 
Bissell, of New York (his late law partner in Buf- 
falo), was made Postmaster-General; and Richard S. 
Olney, of Massachusetts, was appointed Attorney- 
General. Gresham died in 1895, and Olney was ad- 
vanced to the office of Secretary of State. 

Cleveland's first act, on March 4, 1893, was to 



342 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

request the Senate to recall the Treaty of Annexa- 
tion with Hawaii — one of the last acts of the 
Harrison Administration, just before Cleveland's 
accession. On April 14, the American Protectorate 
established there was withdrawn by Commissioner 
Blount, who had gone there as the President's direct 
representative. Cleveland tried unsuccessfully to 
reinstate the dethroned Queen, but was thwarted by 
the Revolutionists, who would not have her. The 
Republic of Hawaii was proclaimed on July 4, 1893. 
On August 9, it was officially recognized by the 
United States. 

One of the most remarkable transactions in the 
history of American politics was the attempt by the 
President's personal friends to buy off James J. Van 
Alen from his claims to the Italian mission by reim- 
bursing him for the $50,000 he had contributed to the 
Democratic National Campaign Fund. Van Alen's 
nomination as Ambassador to Italy was awaiting 
confirmation. It was shown that he had never held 
public office and was a man of no experience in 
affairs of state or diplomacy; that he was not a fit 
representative of the American people, being an 
Anglomaniac and a sneerer at American institutions; 
that although he was a middle-aged man, he had 
never even voted until 1892; and that to reward him 
for his contributions to the Campaign Fund was to 
put a premium upon money as against merit, and 
to hold up a dangerous example before the eyes of 
the young men of the country. Van Alen was con- 
firmed, but felt the force of public opinion, and de- 
clined to serve. 

During Cleveland's second administration was eel- 



GROVE R CLEVELAND. 343 

ebrated the 400th anniversary of the discovery of 
America by Columbus. A *' Columbian" Exposi- 
tion was carried on in Chicago for six months, from 
May till November, 1893. It was \}ii^ greatest ex- 
position ever held in the world. Its beauty was 
simply marvelous. The receipts for admission were 
nearly eleven millions of dollars, which will convey 
some impression of its magnitude, and of the furore 
it occasioned at home and abroad. The buildings 
cost nearly thirty millions of dollars; they were built 
on Lake Michigan and styled " the White City." 
The exposition was visited by nearly twenty-eight 
million people. 

On November 7, 1893, eleven States held elec- 
tions. The Democrats carried Virginia, Kentucky, 
and Maryland. The Republicans got the rebound 
of the "tidal wave," and polled surprisingly large 
majorities from the great manufacturing States of 
New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachu- 
setts; and from Ohio, Indiana, Nebraska, and South 
Dakota. In other words, the Administration carried 
three States, with a voting representation of 417,267 
votes; while the Republicans carried eight States, 
represented by nearly 3,000,000 votes. 

William McKinley, the father of the " McKinley 
Tarifif Bill," was elected Governor of Ohio by a very 
large majority over L. T. Neal, his Democratic op- 
ponent, and the author of the " Protection is a 
Fraud" plank in the 1892 Cleveland Platform. 

In the summer of 1893 a money panic was pro- 
voked by the banks who everywhere made currency 
scarce and refused the customary discounting accom- 
modations to the business community, no matter 



344 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



how financially stable they might have been. They 
attributed the ''panic" to the "Silver Purchasing 
Act," and the President convened a special Congress 
to consider the crisis. After a long and acrimonious 
debate, in which all free coinage amendments were 
rejected, the Silver Repeal Act was passed, October 
30, 1893, many Republicans voting with the Demo- 
crats. 

On December 19, 1893, a tariff bill known as the 
" Wilson Bill " was offered in the House. It was 
debated for 23 days, and passed February i, 1894. 
It went to the Senate, where it was debated till July, 
and after numerous conferences and amendments 
was finally passed by a strict party vote, 182 being 
for, and 106 against the measure. Pending its pas- 
sage, Senator Gorman called together the Demo- 
cratic caucus to instruct the committee having the 
bill in charge to reconstruct the bill so that it would 
suit the Protectionist Democrats. The bill was 
"amended" in several hundred particulars and 
again reported, but it was still unsatisfactory. 
Another caucus was called to tighten the screws, 
after which, on May 8, some 400 new amendments 
were reported. 

"The Senate Bill" had assumed its final form. 
It passed the Senate, but the House rejected the 634 
Senate amendments in gross — consideration of points 
of disagreement between the two Houses was begun 
in the conference committee. The Senate conferees 
presented an ultimatum — " the Senate bill as it is 
or no tariff legislation." The House conferees de- 
manded free raw materials and no protection for 
sugar, but in vain. On July 19, Wilson reported 



GROVE R CLEVELAND. 34^ 

the disagreement to the House, and made public the 
President's letter insisting on free raw materials. 

Proposals to recede from the amendments putting 
a duty on ore and coal were voted down. Attempts 
having been made to kill the bill in the Senate, the 
House became alarmed at the prospect of failure of 
all tariff legislation, and on August 13 passed the 
Senate bill. On the same day the House passed 
four bills, putting sugar, coal, ore and barbed wire 
on the free list, but they were not acted on by the 
Senate. 

This bill was not satisfactory to the President, who 
conceived that it did not go far enough, and who 
allowed it to become a law without his approval on 
August 27, 1894. 

An ''Income Tax" provision was inserted in the 
bill at the President's suggestion. He claimed that 
it would be paid by millionaires without falling on 
any of them oppressively. The press rancorously 
assailed the constitutionality of the law. It struggled 
through the House, and won its way through a re- 
luctant Senate. It was voted for by 172 Democrats 
and 10 Populists. There were but 48 votes against 
it, these being mainly Republicans. The U. S. 
Supreme Court subsequently decided that the In- 
come Tax was unconstitutional, and it became in- 
operative. It was confidently expected by the 
President and his following that the bill would have 
been sustained by the court. Its being thrown out 
reduced the revenues of the Government more than 
30 millions of dollars; and obliged the President to 
beg from Congress the authority to issue gold bonds 
— in other words — to borrow enough money to cover 



346 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

the deficiency forced upon the Government by the 
changed conditions of our tariff laws. 

The financial recommendations of the President 
were voted down, and a bill to "authorize the Sec- 
retary of the Treasury to issue bonds to maintain a 
suiSicient gold reserve, and to redeem and retire 
United States notes," was defeated by a majority of 
27. Following this the President informed Congress 
that he had neo^otiated a conditional sale of over 
62 million dollars of four per cent, coin bonds to a 
syndicate largely representing foreign capitalists, 
having no other resource left because of the "omis- 
sion thus far on the part of the Congress to bene- 
ficially enlarge the powers of the Secretary of the 
Treasury in the premises," and recommending an 
alternative proposition to issue three per cent, bonds 
by Act of Congress. This last message went to the 
Ways and Means Committee, whose chairman 
(Wilson) reported a resolution authorizing the issue 
of $65,116,275 of gold 3 per cent, bonds, as recom- 
mended by the President. The measure was called 
up on February 14, and defeated the same day by 
47 majority. 

The gold that was brought from Europe for the 
65 millions that was issued in bonds went back 
again in a few months, and, as far as our subsequent 
situation went, it might as well have been left there 
all the time. Other loans were subsequently ne- 
gotiated. 

In a nut-shell the case resolves itself to this: 
President Harrison in four years reduced the national 
d^bt $236,527,666; President Cleveland in three 
years has increased the interest-bearing bonded 



GROVE R CLEVELAND. 



347 



debt 58^262,602,245. If the Wilson Tariff Bill as it 
first passed the House, where it met with the hearty 
approval of the President, had become law, the 
deficiency in revenue would have been much greater 
than it is. 

On September 18, 1895, the Cotton States and 
International Exposition was opened at Atlanta, in 
Georgia. The exposition closed December 31, 1895. 
The receipts were about a million and a quarter of 
dollars, while the cost was something less. During 
the progress of the exhibition it is said to have been 
visited by 1,286,863 persons. Many of these visitors 
came from the North and the West, and the enterprise 
was the means of acquainting the entire country with 
the industrial capabilities of the new South. 

An act enabling Utah to enter the Union was en- 
acted, and on January 4, 1896, she made the 45th 
State, and added another star to the national flag. 

The elections of November, 1894, resulted in great 
Republican victories. 21 States elected governors, 
and of these only three elected Democrats. In the 
other 18 States the Republicans were successful in 
16, a Silverite being chosen in Nevada, and a Popu- 
list in Nebraska. California was Republican for all 
ofiices except that of governor. 

The elections of 1895 resulted in even greater 
Republican victories than those of 1894, although 
the majorities were not in all cases as large as in the 
former year. Elections were held in 12 States and 
all but one were carried by the Republicans, gener- 
ally by large majorities. The solitary Democratic 
State was Mississippi. 

No great party was ever so sweepingly repudiated as 



348 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

the Democratic organization has been during the 
past three years. The elections of 1893, 1894, 1895, 
all showed that the country profoundly regretted the 
blunder of 1892. As Representative Cannon of Illi- 
nois succinctly put it, "Ever since the Democratic 
administration came into power there has been de- 
ficiency, distress, idleness, and panic." 

An interesting feature in our political history was 
the censuring by the House of Representatives of 
Ambassador to England Thomas F. Bayard, who so 
far forgot his duty as to indulge in indiscreet pub- 
lic utterances about home politics; thereby giving 
an altogether false notion of American institutions 
as they are. Mr. Bayard had been the Democratic 
Senator from Delaware, and was Cleveland's Secre- 
tary of State during his first term. In an address in 
Scotland, he delivered himself as follows: "The 
President of the United States stands in the midst 
of a strong, self-confident, and oftentimes violent 
people — men who seek to have their own way, and 
I tell you plainly that it takes a real man to govern 
the people of the United States. * * * In my own 
country I have witnessed the insatiable growth of 
that form of State socialism styled 'Protection,' 
which I believe has done more to foster class legis- 
lation and create inequality of fortune, to corrupt 
public life, to banish men of independent mind and 
character from the public councils, to lower the tone 
of national representation, blunt public conscience, 
create a false standard in the popular mind, divorce 
ethics from politics, and place politics upon the low 
level of a mercenary scramble than any other single 
cause. ***** j^ ^^\^^ ^^^^ policy of pro- 



GROVE R CLEVELAND. 



349 



tection) has unhesitatingly allied itself with every 
policy which tends to commercial isolation, danger- 
ously depletes the Treasury, and saps the popular 
conscience by schemes of corrupting favor and 
largesse to special classes whose support is thereby 
attracted. Thus it has done so much to throw leg- 
islation into the political market, where jobbers and 
chafferers take the place of statesmen." 

Bayard seemed to forget that he represented the 
American people without regard to their political 
predilections, and was not at the Court of St. James 
as the purely personal representative of the Presi- 
dent, whose sentiments he went so far out of his way 
to voice. 

A resolution of censure was adopted by the House 
by a vote of i8o to 71. Though the vote was mainly 
along political lines, several Democrats voted in 
favor of the resolution. Bayard held on to his post 
notwithstanding this censure implied that he had 
forfeited the confidence of his countrymen, and if 
the "dishonest, sordid, and unpatriotic majority" 
could have had their way, his dismissal would have 
been insisted upon. 

The Cuban Revolution began on February 20, 
1895, by simultaneous uprisings in different parts of 
the island. It has continued with various results 
ever since. The previous uprising lasted from 1878 
till 1888, when the Cubans surrendered upon prom- 
ises from Spain of reforms that have never been 
accorded. The Senate and House passed resolutions 
favoring the recognition of belligerency, and calling 
upon the Executive to expostulate with Spain and 
prevent her treating her rebellious subjects as brig- 



350 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



ands or pirates. The President has, up to this 
time, treated these resolutions as if they were a 
precipitate and perfunctory expression of ephemeral 
opinion. 

The Venezuela case was originally a boundary 
question. Discoveries of gold in Venezuela and the 
growing importance of the Orinoco River, have led 
the British to claim that the boundary of British 
Guiana extends to the Orinoco, and includes these 
gold fields. 

Our Government recommended arbitration to 
settle the question; but Great Britain, having a bad 
case, refused to accede. When British subjects en- 
tered the disputed territory, they were arrested by 
the Venezuelans, and for this Great Britain demanded 
an indemnity. She threatened to seize a part of 
Venezuela to enforce her demands; and the President 
surprised the public by nobly championing the cause 
of little Venezuela as against Great Britain, on the 
ground that our Monroe Doctrine would not allow 
us to entertain the idea of any foreign government 
possessing any portion of this continent — either by 
grab or purchase. Lord Salisbury refused peremp- 
torily to arbitrate the question. Just at this time 
the President was negotiating with his syndicate of 
New York and foreio^n bankers for a new o^old loan 
of lOO millions. The big London firms set out to 
teach us a lesson. They advised everybody to un- 
load our securities, not because they expected war, 
but to punish us for our temerity. They smashed 
our stocks and set Wall street agog for a couple of 
days till the scare blew over. Morgan, of the bank- 
ers' syndicate, reported that the prevailing attitude 



GROVE R CLEVELAND. 351 

made it more difficult to float the loan and a larger 
rate of interest was demanded. 

The Press suggested a popular loan. The ad- 
ministration reluctantly tried it and was amazed at 
the result. The people's answer to the President 
was most humiliating to him. There were 4640 
separate bids aggregating an offering of over 684 
millions of dollars, and at prices far above those 
granted by the syndicate in their secret bargains. 
When the syndicate saw how the loan was likely to 
go they offered to take the entire 100 millions at a 
price more than six millions higher than that which 
Cleveland consented to receive a year earlier. 

The world was surprised at the unanimity with 
which the President's Message was endorsed by the 
people, who showed that they were strong, pre- 
pared, and thoroughly united. A Commission ap- 
pointed by the President to inquire into the boun- 
dary question, and to furnish Congress with all nec- 
essary information, are still at their labors. Every 
day's delay weakens the English objection to arbi- 
tration ; and a peaceable and satisfactory solution of 
the matter is confidently anticipated. 

As we go to press with our book the Presidential 
question yields a most interesting study. The Re- 
publican party seems to show a wealth of candidates 
— almost all of the great States presenting " favor- 
ite sons." The prevailing feeling seems to be that 
the St. Louis Convention will name the next Presi- 
dent and Vice-President, and the choice, no matter 
where it may fall, will be a wise one; the nominee 
will have a solid, cordial, enthusiastic, and vigorous 



352 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS, 



support, and the country be assured of a conservative 
and patriotic administration. 

The apathy visible among the Democratic states- 
men, who, under ordinary circumstances, would be 
inflamed with ambition to become their party's can- 
didate for President, is not the only unsatisfactory 
feature of the Democratic outlook. Several of the 
most influential and valuable of the party's leaders 
are reported as intending to stay away from the 
coming Democratic National Convention, because, 
it is alleged, of the threat that the majority of dele- 
gates there may adopt a declaration for the free 
coinage of silver, and produce a situation in which 
there can be little chance of profit in the party's 
canvass. 

The Democratic nominee is very likely to be 
Grover Cleveland. Most of the prominent party 
men have been put forward in a provisional sort of 
way, to test popular favor; but no enthusiasm greeted 
any of the announcements. The Democratic press 
have attacked, in a general way, the prejudice against 
a third term, as an antiquated and unreasonable tra- 
dition; hinting upon the possibility of a state of 
affairs arising that would imperatively require the 
President to sacrifice his personal convenience to the 
public good. A peculiar peculiarity of the temper 
of the people is shown in the fact that Bayard, whose 
name was up in most of the recent conventions, has 
never been mentioned as a possible contingency. 
A fair field, no favor, and may the best man win. 



BENJAMIN HARRISON. 353 



BENJAMIN HARRISON— 1889-1893. 

Benjamin Harrison, our twenty-third President, 
was born in Ohio, August 20, 1833, and was one of a 
family of nine children. His father was a son of Presi- 
dent William Henry Harrison. Benjamin graduated 
from Miami University, Ohio, in 1852. He studied 
law and settled in Indianapolis, Indiana, to practise 
his profession in 1854. When the war broke out he 
raised a company of volunteers and was its second 
lieutenant, from which he rose to a Colonelcy. He 
served in the Atlanta campaigns under Sherman 
and distinguished himself at the battle of Resaca. 
He took part in the battle of Nashville under Gen- 
eral Thomas in 1864. In 1865 he was made a brevet- 
Brigadier-General. 

He took an active part in Grant's Presidential 
campaign in 1868 and again in 1872. In 1876 he ran 
for Governor of Indiana, but was defeated. He de- 
clined a Cabinet office under Garfield. He was 
elected to the U. S. Senate in 1880, but was defeated 
when he ran for re-election six years later. In 1888, 
he was the Republican nominee for the Presidency 
against Grover Cleveland, and was elected. He was 
sworn into office March 4, 1889. 

James G. Blaine was called to the Cabinet as Sec- 
retary of State ; and William Windom was made 
Secretary of the Treasury. Secretary Windom died 
January 29, 189 1, and was followed in the office by 
Charles Foster, of Ohio. John Wanamaker, of 
Philadelphia, was Postmaster-General. 

In December, 1889, the McKinley Tariff Bill was 
23 



354 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



passed. Its main features were a large reduction 
in revenues caused by a substantial removal of duties 
from raw sugar, a sytem of bounties for sugar grown 
here, an increase of duty on many manufactured 
articles, and the adoption of a clause suggested by 
Blaine favoring reciprocity with other American 
Nations. Wyoming and Idaho were admitted as 
States. 

The Republicans met at Minneapolis, June 7, 
1892. Blaine had written the Chairman of the Con- 
vention that his name would not be presented as a 
candidate. Harrison's re-nomination was opposed by 
the political leaders in New York, Pennsylvania, 
Ohio, Iowa, Louisiana, Colorado, Oregon, and Mis- 
souri, who agreed to present and support Blaine, 
feeling satisfied he would accept if his nomination 
was plainly for the good of the party. The feeling 
against "boss" rule, as it was styled, prevented 
Blaine's nomination. McKinley, the father of the 
1890 Tariff bill, was suggested, but he voted for 
Harrison and resisted the proposed stampede in his 
favor. Thereupon Harrison was re-nominated, re- 
ceiving 535 votes to 182 each for both McKinley 
and Blaine. Whitelaw Reid, of New York, was 
placed on the ticket for the Vice-Presidency, in the 
place of Levi P. Morton. 

The Democrats met at Chicago, June 21, 1892. 
Cleveland was the avowed nominee. He was op- 
posed by Senator David B. Hill and the whole 
power of Tammany Hall in New York City, who 
repeatedly declared that he could not carry his own 
State. Balloting was reached on the 23d, at four 
o'clock in the morning, the Cleveland leaders, under 



BENJAMIN HARRISON. 



355 



W. C. Whitney, doing this to prevent combinations 
by the opposition. Cleveland received 617 votes ; 




BENJAMIN HARRISON. 



David B. Hill, 115 ; Governor Boies, of Iowa, 103 ; 

with 75 scattering. Cleveland was therenpon unani- 



356 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

mously renominated. Adlai E. Stevenson, of Illi- 
nois, was nominated for the Vice-Presidency on the 
first ballot. 

A notable scene in the convention was created 
when a radical free-trade plank was moved as a sub- 
stitute for the more moderate utterances of the 
platform. The substitute denounced the protective 
tariff as a fraud. 

The debate was animated and made specially in- 
teresting by suggestions and calls from the galleries. 
The substitute was finally accepted, and a roll call 
demanded on it. It was reported that the substitute 
was prepared by the Anti-Cleveland leaders. The 
result of the vote was 564 for the substitute, ajnd 
314 against it. 

The campaign was run on about the same general 
issues as in 1888. Harrison, however, was consid- 
erably weakened by the substitution of Reid for 
Vice-President, in place of Morton. Reid was stren- 
uously objected to by all the labor-unions in the 
country. Typographical Union, the most powerful 
of the trade organizations, with its multitude of 
affiliations in all the large cities of the country, was 
dead set against him. The Tribune office had 
achieved a conspicuous eminence in the newspaper 
industry as the pronounced foe of unionism in any 
and all shapes. When Reid found this operating 
against his chances for election, he turned his office 
into a ''union shop," as it is termed, imhesitatingly 
casting adrift the compositors and pressmen who had 
stuck to him in his many and determined conflicts with 
the "Union," and who were relying on his promise 
of keeping them steadily at work as long as he was at 



BENJAMIN HARRISON. 



357 



the head of the publication. But this did him no 
good. The motive was too transparent. The action 
was distrusted, and the labor vote worked steadily 
against the ticket to the end. His candidacy cost 
Harrison the vote of New York, and thereby a re- 
election. He had carried the State in 1889 by 14,000 
plurality. 

Cleveland and Stevenson received 277 electoral 
votes, and Harrison and Reid but 145. On the pop- 
ular vote, Cleveland received 98,017 more than Har- 
rison. The Democrats were to be "in clover, with 
four years more of Grover." 

Bx-President Hayes and James G. Blaine died in 
January, 1893. 

In Hawaii, the queen was dethroned by the rev- 
olutionists, and on February i Minister Stevens 
raised the United States flag at Honolulu, landed the 
U. S. marines, and established a protectorate. A 
treaty of annexation to the United States was about 
to be signed, but the President thought it a matter 
of courtesy to hold over all further proceedings for 
action by his successor. A bad thing, as it turned 
out, for Cleveland tried in every conceivable way to 
reorganize the monarchy, and reinstate the deposed 
queen. 

Although General Harrison's term was distin- 
guished by no very remarkable events, yet a large 
number of useful measures were adopted, and a 
model of executive administration was presented. 
There was vigilance in the execution of the law by 
all its officers and guardians. There was no waste; 
no stealing; no defalcations, and there were no rings 
nor jobs. There was probity and integrity in office; 



358 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



there was no purchasing of votes or corrupt means 
practised to influence legislation; there was public 
and private virtue; at the courts of foreign nations 
we were represented by men of experience, learning, 
and ability. 

Ou the inauguration of Cleveland and Stevenson, 
General Harrison returned to Indianapolis, Indiana, 
and resumed the practice of the law. 

The national debt was reduced during this admin- 
istration $236,527,666; a very respectable showing. 

[The more important of the measures of the second Cleveland 
Administration will be found in the preceding pages under 
Cleveland.] 



TABLE OF THE PRESIDENTS, 



359 



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360 TABLE OF ADMISSION OF STATES. 

1 Delaware accepted the Constitution Dec 7 T7S7 

2 Pennsylvania " " *> ^^^- 7. i7o7 

3 New Jersey " - u Dec. 12, 1787 

4 Georgia ^« .. .. Dec. 18, 17S7 

5 Connecticut " «' .. J^"- 2, 1788 

6 Massachusetts '« " .. Jf"- 9-1788 

7 Maryland " «* .. -^'^^- 6,1788 

8 South Carolina " - «. ^P^- ^8, 178S 

9 New Hampshire - - - ? >' ^•5. 1788 

10 Virginia '« .. u Jnne 21, 1788 

11 New York « - .. ' June 25, 1788 

12 North Carolina - *' - l^^y ^6, 1788 

13 Rhode Island - - .. ?l^'^- ^i. 1789 

14 Vermont admitted to the Union .* ! .' ! .' .' ' ' Mar ?' ^"o? 

15 Kentucky «« ^i <» :;*^'^^- 4, i/9i 

16 Tennessee «' '« .< J""^ ^' ^792 

17 Ohio M M ,, J"ue I, 1796 

18 Louisiana ♦« - .. Nov. 29, 1802 

19 ludiana '« .. u t^P^- -^O' ^812 

20 Mississippi - - u J^^c- i^' 1816 

21 Illinois *« .< .< Dec. 10, 1817 

22 Alabama '« - .. i^^^- 3, 1818 

23 Maine «« w .. ?ec. 14, 1819 

24 Missouri - w .. fa^- ^5- 1820 

25 Arkansas " « .. Aug. 10, 1821 

26 Michigan '« - .. J"""^ ^5, 1836 

27 Florid! - - .. •!?"• 26, 1837 

28 Texas - .< .. ?5^^- 3. 1845 

29 Iowa " <« .. J,^^^- 29, 1845 

30 Wisconsin " •< .. ?,^^- ^S, 1846 

31 California - - <. May 29, 1848 

32 Minnesota - - . ^fP^- 9, 1S50 

33 Oregon •' .. . ■ ^J^ ^i' 1858 

34 Kansas •' . . !^^b. 14, 1859 

35 West Virginia - - <« J^"' ^9, 1861 

36 Nevada ^ " .< . June 19, 1863 

37 Nebraska - - . S^^' 31, 1S64 

38 Colorado - - u f^^- i' ^l^j 

39 North Dakota •' '' - ^^^T ^' o^ 

40 South Dakota - - .< J^t" ''* lo^ 

41 Montana - - u J!^,^- 22, 1889 

42 Washington - ^< .. g^^' ^2' ^889 

43 Idaho - .. . f^b. 22, 1889 

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